Runaway emu returned home in back of car after recognising silver-lined jacket

An emu seen wandering around a New Hampshire town that was caught last week has been reunited with its owner – a Vermont farmer who lives more than 80 miles away. Kermit Blackwood, curator of Taft Hill Farm in West Townshend, Vt., called Maria Colby, who owns Wings of the Dawn, a wildlife rehabilitation centre in New Hampshire, to see if their emu, Beatrice, might be there. She said birds can recognise individuals they know, so they arranged to have Blackwood and farm intern Daniel Lipschutz visit the emu, which was spotted in Bow before it was caught and brought to the wildlife centre on Sept. 20.



Blackwood wore a jacket lined with silver fabric, which he typically wears while milking cows at his farm, inside out in the hope that the emu would recognise him. When he approached the bird slowly, the emu rolled its neck toward Blackwood, something it hadn’t done since arriving at the farm, Colby said. In late July, a pack of coywolves attacked the emus at Taft Hill Farm. Prior to the attack, there were six emus at the farm. After the attack, Taft Hill Farm owner Robert DuGrenier said they found the leg of one of the emus, a pile of feathers from another, and assumed the remaining emus were missing or killed.





A pair of emus were caught in nearby communities, but Beatrice was still nowhere to be seen. It’s unclear how the emus escaped from the pasture near the farm’s sugar shack where maple sugar is made every year. The emus have been at the farm since 2004, and several have been born there. DuGrenier says they eventually saw video of an emu in Bow. When no one claimed the bird after a little while, they made arrangements to see it at the wildlife centre. After Beatrice and Blackwood reconnected, Colby, her husband, Blackwood and Lipschutz spent about 20 minutes trying to corral the bird to put into a 2013 Toyota Prius.





A hand-woven wool sock was put over Beatrice’s head to keep her calm, and she was also wrapped in a blanket. DuGrenier says the seats were put back up with Beatrice in the back of the Prius without the stocking over her head. The flightless bird gave his owner a bit of a scare on the return ride to the farm. “On the drive home Beatrice decided she had had enough of the travelling conditions and began to struggle violently, nearly heaving herself out the window,” DuGrenier said. Beatrice has now been reunited with her flock, DuGrenier added.