Feral Emus

[N.DaWoods]

Central Texas has some left over from the bust in the 90s. I was lucky enough to shoot one with my bow a few years back. Land owner told me to shoot it. There were quite a few more, but his wife became attached to them. He asked us to pass on them after that, but meat was pretty good and was a fun experience.

[Smart]

When I was about 13-14, I went out to my uncle's lease in between Brackettville and Del Rio. It was a low fence property but they had several different types of exotics wandering around on the place, including several groups/flocks/herds of Rhea's, which are similar to emu's. I hunted almost a full week trying to get close enough to kill one of them with my bow. I never was able to make it happen with the bow so one of the last days, I picked up a .243 when I couldn't close the distance to bow range and killed one. I remember it being like a large wild turkey breast. Wish I could still find a picture of me with it.

Did that place happen to be on the Corazon Ranch south of Bracketville? Because I killed a rhea doing the same.... and your description of the place was identical....

[RifleBowPistol]

We jumped one up years back near Tulia in a milo field hunting pheasants. The dog actually pointed it hiding in a ditch. I am sure that dog still is confused by what happened. All of us stood there looking at each other as it ran away. I wish we had shot it. I cooked a lot of emu meat at Tech in foods lab. The breast was good fried or grilled.

That would have been great to have on film.

[kevin nicholls]

When I hunted by D'Hanis we'd find emu eggs on the property every now and then. I guess they were emu, they were big eggs. Never saw one though.

[RifleBowPistol]

Sometime back in the late 80s to mid 90s, I was driving north on 35, south of Dilley, right around Millet. I am pretty sure I saw a ostrich running south on the frontage road. Still pretty sure it was a ostrich, multiple people tried to tell me it was a emu. If I remember correctly emus have feathers that droop downwards and are dark colored. The bird I saw was big, black and white with feathers that looked more like a ostrich. I don't know where it came from or where it went. If there had been a place I could have turned around easily, I would have gone back to get a better look. I did watch it for a while in my rear view mirror. Not something you see everyday. It was moving along a pretty good pace when I first saw it, the whole time I could see, it, it never slowed down.

[Travis Deveney]

Had one on lease in walker co. bout 25 years ago. Just a big ole turkey.

[MUZZYSLINGR]

We had one running amok in & around our place in Carrol Springs about 15 years ago.

I blew its head off with a .308 for constantly hassling my wife’s horses.


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[gander]

Did that place happen to be on the Corazon Ranch south of Bracketville? Because I killed a rhea doing the same.... and your description of the place was identical....


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I'm checking with my uncle and cousin, but I do know where you are standing in that picture looks like the exact terrain/area where they would hangout on the place that I killed mine.

[TX_Hoghunter]

We had some in Harper a few years back. One of them decided to take over one of my feeders. It became aggressive even to people. It ended poorly for him......

-john

[Bisch]

No, but I'd shoot one in a heartbeat. They're very good eating.

I shot one NW of Georgetown several years ago because I had read about how much “good eating” they were. I quickly learned why the emu market collapsed!!! It was quite possibly the worst meat I have ever consumed!

Bisch


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[whitetailfanatic]

I got chased by a similar looking giant bird in Red River county once, Crazy bird was super aggressive no weapon in hand was by a rest area

[deerplanter]

We had two that would we would see in San Saba county out of Burnet. None of us wanted to mess with them and they finally moved on.

[gander]

Did that place happen to be on the Corazon Ranch south of Bracketville? Because I killed a rhea doing the same.... and your description of the place was identical....


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Spoke with my cousin and he said the ranch was called Perdido Creek Ranch, so looks like we might be talking about two different places. This was about 20 years ago.

[brutus]

We had several Rheas on our lease in Mills county by the Toddy House south of Priddy some 6-7 years ago. We even has one actual Ostridge I would assume that is what it was as when we shut the gate to keep cows up top that bird would stand at the gate and it would hit him right at the bottom of his neck. I like watching them but to many others killed them just to say that shot one. I never remember any making it back to camp to be cleaned and eaten. When we lost the lease there were none to be seen anymore.

[bboswell]

Used to be some between Winnie & High Island