Within a minute of arriving at what appeared to be a peaceful bush track with her dogs, Ruby Buchanan realised she had made a mistake.
On the outskirts of Broken Hill, the walking trail had been recommended to her by friends. But they had left out a key detail.
It was home to emus and it was nesting season: a time of year when the territorial birds are at their most aggressive.
“We got out of the car and were just wandering around,” recalled Ruby, who was also accompanied by ABC Broken Hill’s rural reporter Lily McCure.
“I let the dogs out of the cage. Next minute, [I] turn around. There’s an emu.”
More emus appeared and quickly made their feelings known about Ruby’s two kelpies, Holla and Smiley.
The birds “fully charged” at the group.
With the dogs in tow, the women sprinted back to the ute but were unable to get inside as Ruby struggled to find her keys.
The four or five emus pursued them around the ute and another vehicle parked next to it until McCure scrambled onto the latter’s roof.
While down on the ground, Ruby evaded the emus by “kind of playing hide and seek around the bull bar”.
“My car was locked, and I was trying to get in my car and escape it, but it was locked,” she said.
From the relative safety of the roof, McCure took out her phone and started filming as the dogs managed to distract the small mob.
With the emus pushed a small distance away by the kelpies, Ruby finally found her keys.
McCure captured the frenzied moment, descended from the other car’s roof and clambered into the ute, followed by Holla and Smiley.
With everyone back in the safety of the ute’s cabin, the emus started to distance themselves.
“It was so terrifying because I was looking at the dogs hoping that they weren’t going to get attacked, but it was also very funny,” Ruby said.
Having worked on stations in remote parts of the country as a contract musterer, Ruby knew an emu attack could have fatal consequences for her dogs.
Why do emus attack?
Such aggressive behaviour towards dog walkers is quite common during nesting season, according to National Parks Western Area manager Jaymie Norris.
“Dogs present a threat from their perspective. They recognise them as dingoes, and dingoes have been hunting them for [thousands of] years,” he said.
“We do believe that dogs being attacked happens quite regularly, particularly of uncontrolled dogs, but we don’t hear those reports back to us.”
While attacks on humans are unlikely, they can still happen, usually when people are walking in the bush with their dogs.
“No reports of emus attacking humans have been reported in the past couple of years,” Mr Norris said.
“I think a lot of people understand that emus are something to keep your distance from.”
But if you do find yourself out in the bush and come face-to-face with an emu with chicks, the general advice is to slowly walk away.
“They’ll puff their chests out and puff up their feathers and they’ll charge — but generally if you’re walking away from them, they won’t see you as a threat,” Mr Norris said.
“Our advice is if you’re walking a dog through the region, just keep your eye open for emus.
“If you do see emus in the distance, just try to get away from them as best you can.”
Protective dads
Emu dads are known for their dedication to raising their chicks, and it is this dedication that can often lead to attacks.
In the latter half of winter, emu couples split, having spent five months together.
After that, the chicks spend the next two years learning from their dad.
“The young generally reach sexual maturity at about 18 months,” Mr Norris said.
“So even after they are fully-fledged adults the father can still look after them for six months thereafter.”
Emu chicks are easy prey, especially when they are freshly hatched. So, it is all on dad to keep them safe.
“When they’re chicks, they’re susceptible to things like foxes and eagles and goannas … so they grow up pretty quickly,” he said.
“An emu can pursue a dog and kick it and potentially kill the dog.”
The sight of emus so close to Broken Hill was ultimately really good news, he added.
The region’s population had come dangerously close to being wiped out by years of devastating drought.
“It’s taken a couple of years for them to get to the state where they’re building up those numbers [again],” Mr Norris said.
Editor’s note 13/6/2024: This story has been amended to correct the number of years dingoes have been in Australia.
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