Curious emu joins family
THE McArthurs were a little wary when a full-grown emu started following them in the paddock, but now their fine-feathered friend has become part of the family.
About three weeks ago, Ainsley McArthur was shifting cattle on a two-wheel motorbike with her daughters Adelaide and Eliza, who were on horses, when up popped an emu who started tracking her moves.
On their property, Mystery Park near St Lawrence in Central Queensland, they get the odd emu dropping by but she had never seen one behave like this.
“I would ride out to push a bull in or chase up a cow, and he would follow behind me,” she said.
“He was right in my circle. “And then he started following Eliza – she’s our youngest.
“I thought ‘my god, we are being chased by an emu’,” she laughed.
They walked their herd about 5km to the next paddock and their new mate became a bit of a novelty.
He would trot behind the tail, join the mob of about 500 and sporadically follow the ringers.
When their job was done, Ainsley headed home and her daughters rode back to the house paddock.
Being good bush kids, when they got to the last gate they shut it behind them, blocking the emu off.
From then on, from time to time, the emu would pop up, getting closer and closer to their house yard, and eventually he just moved in.
Now, old mate emu stickybeaks when they unpack the car, peers through their house window to see who is inside and gets a close look at the pages when their kids are reading a book on the lawn.
Her children have started calling him Fred, but are still working on an official name.
Last week Ainsley posted a video to Facebook of the emu wreaking a little bit of havoc as her husband Rob attempted to shift poddy calves off the lawn.
‘Fred’ joined in on the action running fast circles flat out and kicking up like a fresh horse. The video has gone viral. Almost 100,000 people have viewed it online.
Ainsley couldn’t control her laughter watching the action unfold, which added to the humour of the footage.
“I have been a little overwhelmed by the response of it,” she said.
“I have been sharing posts of the emu on My Story on Instagram. People have just been loving him. I am getting messages that he should have his own page.”
The McArthur family have welcomed him, but stress the house gate is always open if he wants to move on.
They suspect he must have belonged to someone else and been a pet at one stage.
“When we first saw him, he did seem a little stressed,” she said.
“But he has a calmness to his eye now.
“The horses aren’t bothered by him. When we were unsaddling the other day he was picking things out of their tail and ate a march fly off one of their necks.”
The family have a rule to not feed native animals.
However, emu droppings under the clothesline indicate he is well nourished in that department. See Fred’s antics by following mcarthurteam on Instagram, or liking the From the Verandah page on Facebook.