An Australian woman on Friday broadcast an appeal for help to stop a sexually frustrated giant bird — a male emu — from trying to herd her into its nest.
Patrena Arriston from the outback town of Katherine told national radio her seven-year-old emu, Edward, began sitting on an empty nest last year and now chases her when she comes close to it.
“It’s starting to get a bit frustrated and when I go in there to pet it or feed the chooks [chickens] and stuff like that, I sort of get rounded up,” she said.
“It keeps circling me and I have to get a palm frond and hold it up and sort of push it away.”
Emus, which are covered with shaggy grey-brown feathers but cannot fly, can grow up to 1,9 metres tall (more than six feet) and weigh up to 45kg.
Arriston said she knew of an available female emu about 800km but did not have a trailer to bring it to her property and hoped somebody might be able to help with the transportation.
“I just thought maybe if there is somebody out there who could be coming up that’s got a bit of spare room and wants to put an emu in the back,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“I know trucks are pretty full, I suppose. But there might be someone out there that might be able to help us.” — AFP