Talk:Emu

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Contents

[edit] Enemies

What kind of animals eat emus? A section of preditors and what kind of animals prey on it would be interesting. 4.142.123.41 00:46, 14 August 2007 (UTC)eric

[edit] Aggressivness

Why is the emu so much less aggressive than the ostrich or the cassowary? Or is this just omitted? 4.142.123.41 00:46, 14 August 2007 (UTC)Eric

[edit] Misc

Qwertyest? I don't believe this is a word in common use.

Maybe it would be better to just leave the common names out, Jim. They are plain enough in the text anyway. Tannin 14:14 Apr 11, 2003 (UTC)

good thinkingjimfbleak

"immune to the ill-effects of low blood CO2 levels"

Shouldn't it say high levels? Cos111 01:27 26 Jul 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Capitalization

Tannin, please stop wrongly capitalizing the word "emu" in this article. This is the English - not German - Wikipedia. In English nouns are only capitalized when they are proper nouns or the first word of a sentence. We do not capitalize every instance of such words as "kangaroo", "wombat", "chair" or "bicycle", and equally, "emu" is no exception to the rules of English grammar. Needless to say, capitalization of scientific names is correct, as these are proper nouns, however generic descriptions of the animal known commonly as the "emu" - notwithstanding the fact there is only a single species - does not require capitalization. There is only a single species of homo sapiens, however we do not capitalize the words "man" or "mankind" in general usage. --Centauri 23:32, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)

There is, for some reason, a lot of debate as to whether common names of species should be capitalized. Apparently they frequently are in scientific literature. There is a huge amount of archived wikidebate on this subject in the various sections of Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Tree of Life. I personally would rather not capitalize these names, but I don't feel strongly enough about it to take part in such a ridiculously long running argument. So for now I'm staying neutral, and not reverting anyone's changes for that issue. --Iustinus 16:06, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Scientific Name

Can someone who knows more about biological conventions include a note about the alternate name "Dromiceius novaehollandiae"? I know that many species have alternate or obsolete scientific names, and that it doesn't make sense to insist on cataloguing them in every single article, but in this case I would like to see the alternate name mentioned. Why? Because the dionsaur Dromiceiomimus is intended to mean "Emu-Mimic" and this makes no sense unless you know about the alternate name. --Iustinus 16:06, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Done. :) FiggyBee 05:45, 27 January 2006 (UTC)


[edit] feather colouring

I removed this piece of statistical commedy genius:

 in combination, the dark and light areas of the plumage deflect or absorb all but 2% of the sun's radiant heat.

Akin to:

 "All but 2% of people involved in the accident either were killed or survived!"

Really even the bit I left does not explain why the two-colour feathers help to regulate temperature. Anyone know if it even does? reference?

TomViza 13:05, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] farm use

I'm pretty sure that some Emus are farmed for meat. Should there not be a section on this? Lotusduck 00:16, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Emus are not farmed exclusively for their meat. There is not enough meat on an emu to make it profitable; the oil is the main product. The American Emu Association calls the meat and oil "co-products" rather than by-products. alphzoup

Upon reading the section on the economic usefulness of the emu, I think it needs to be completely rewritten because there are a lot of misleading and false pieces of information. I also have some photos to accompany this part of the page. I will try to do this soon. alphzoup —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.204.228.23 (talk) 07:35, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Hybrid

I believe the emu can be hybridized with it's close cousin, the cassowary, or maybe (unlikely) with other ratites . Has this ever been done?

I remeber that this occured at a Victorian Fauna Park in the 70's between a Female Cassowary and Male Emu. But have been unble to find anything to back this up. It was reported in the local media when it happened.
Do you know what the hybrids were like? And why has this not been reported to worldwide news agencies? I should think that something like this would be important news.

[edit] Coverage map request

This is already a very good article, however I think it'd benefit with the inclusion of a coverage map (similar to this example). -- Longhair 03:02, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

A map has already been requested. This Wikiproject Australia spam is really getting over the top.--Peta 03:32, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cultural reference

In Western Australia, one of the most popular mainstream beers is Emu Bitter, a 4.6% lager produced by the Lion Nathan-owned Swan Brewery. They also make Emu Export for people without tastebuds. I'm not having you on here; I think this is a significant cultural reference. Snottygobble 00:22, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like it fits in the third paragraph - should Emu export just be a subsection of the Emu bitter or are they significantly different products?--Peta 00:25, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
Different products. Snottygobble 00:30, 14 July 2006 (UTC) He speaks from experience :) SatuSuro 00:33, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Map

The map shows the distribution in black superimposed on a grey map, right? With so much of Australia covered, it is perhaps not clear that it isn't a grey distribution on a black map. Snottygobble 05:52, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Looking at it some text with the picture is needed for clarification of which is which! SatuSuro 05:57, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
Done, thanks for pointing that out.--Peta 06:11, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nasal turbinates

On exhalation, the Emu's cold nasal turbinates condensed moisture back out of the air and absorbs it for reuse

That sentence doesn't make sense to me. Shouldn't it be: condense moisture .. and absorb it?--Eloquence* 04:42, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes. Thanks for spotting that.--Peta 04:44, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] On USDA references

To whoever added the USDA reference: Please note that this site uses HTTP POST instead of HTTP GET as its form submission method. In simple terms, this means that instead of something like "search.pl?my_search_terms", the result URL will be something like "search.pl" -- without your search parameters. Copying that URL will therefore not replicate the search result. On forms like this, you can often use a bookmarklet (like frmget from this page) to convert the form to submit a HTTP GET request so that the resulting URL contains the query string and can be copied. I fixed it in this article but don't know if there are other uses. Hope that made sense. ;-) --Eloquence* 05:14, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

  • Vaguely, thanks.--Peta 05:18, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 613 place names

Regarding the claim that there are 613 Australian places named after Emu, the cited list includes names like "Mount Peregian" which are obviously not emu-related. Why? Because these have alternative names containing the word "Emu" e.g. "Mount Peregian" has an alternative name "Mount Emu". But the alternative name also appears in that list, so we're actually counting that mount twice. I count eleven names that are obviously not named after the emu, and a couple of doubtful ones, so I will change the article to claim "around 600". Snottygobble 11:54, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks.--Peta 00:40, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Welcome. Snottygobble 00:44, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Second biggest bird?

Does anyone know how an animals "bigness" is measured? If we were to compare information in the Wikipedia articles on the Emu and the Cassowary I would be curious to know how the Emu was rated as bigger than the Cassowary. Emu: "The soft-feathered, brown birds reach up to 2 m in height and weigh up to 45 kg." Cassowary: "Adult Southern Cassowaries are 1.5 to 1.8 m (5 to 6 feet) tall, although some may reach 2m (6 feet 8 inches), and weigh about 60 kilograms."

[edit] Migration section from main page

I am going to move the migration section to this page (unless someone objects really quickly) as it is unreferenced and some of it is of questionable relevance. --Apyule 13:47, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

Here it is:

[edit] Migration

EMUs have now been farmed in parts of Southern India. There's also a myth that Emu oil can cure arthritis and Emu meat is much healthier than Chickens. This has led to many people trying to smuggle Emu chicks as "pet chickens" and set up farms in and around South India. Especially Hyderabad, India and in other places of South Tamilnadu, India.

There are emu farms in India (eg here) but I think that this paragraph does not do them any justice. And the bit about smuggling them is pretty weird. --Apyule 13:52, 4 September 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Emu War

I´m not sure if I overlooked information about the Emu War, but just in case I didn´t what about adding it? Markus Becker02 17:06, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

I say {IPA: 'i mu} not {IPA: 'i mju}. Is that an accepted version or am I just weird?Cameron Nedland 22:56, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

{IPA: 'i mu} — a US-only pronunciation, in my experience. It occurs, not surprisingly given the spelling, when US-based folk read the word without ever hearing it said.
{IPA: 'i mju} — the standard pronunciation in Australia. In this sense, at least, it's the accepted version of the spoken word.
— bforte (t/c).
Okay, thanks bro.Cameron Nedland 20:06, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
As an American, I must say that in my experience 'i mu is by no means universal--or even predominant--in the States. (I have always said "'i mju".) 38.117.238.82 05:20, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Am I mistaken, or...

...is "emu" not a common noun? You wouldn't think it when you look at 90% of the times that "emu" is written in this article. I'm editing it. --bī-RŌ 23:56, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

OK, finished. I just skimmed through it, though, so there might be one or two I didn't catch. --bī-RŌ 00:06, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Small point

can sprint at 50 km/h (31 mph) for some distance at a time.

"for some distance at a time" is unnecessarily unspecific; it sounds silly. Rintrah 06:27, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spotted emu?

I remember reading in old books many years ago about a second then-living species called the spotted emu (Dromiceius irorratus). I have seen no reference to it anywhere since, either as a living or extinct species. Could it have been reinterpreted as a subspecies or even a color phase?

Kostaki mou 00:04, 13 February 2007 (UTC) (Forgot to sign at the time. Sorry.)

[edit] Current Classification Consensus?

Like many things relating to sticking animals in boxes, there is probably still some debate as to which actual box the emu belongs in. However, I was under the impression that the current consensus was that emus (and cassowaries) were sufficiently distinct from ostriches to be placed in their own order - Casuariformes - with emus in the family Dromaiidae.

The Smithsonian Natural History Museum [1] and Encyclopedia Britannica [2] both take this position. The article has FA status so I didn't want to just go ahead and whack the edits in without some discussion first (plus I'm still a bit of a noob here). Secret Squïrrel 15:48, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for highlighting this. Would be great to gt original authority and rationale...cheers, Cas Liber | talk | contribs 05:54, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reorganized into hierarchical headings

I have reformatted the article as there is a tendency for this on more recent FAs. Also is now in line with other Bird FAs. cheers, Cas Liber | talk | contribs 05:42, 27 May 2007 (UTC)