Emus to be named at show

First the people of Kaikoura named Digby the donkey and now the Kaikoura Farm Park is asking them to further stretch their imagination and name its two new emus.

The birds, native to Australia, arrived last week from the Harambe game farm at Onamalutu, near Blenheim. where they were bred.

Kaikoura Farm Park owners Kevin Cole and Lynn Barrett will announce the winners of the naming competition at the Kaikoura A & P Show at 4pm on February 27 in the Farm Yard Corner.

However the emus will not be at their naming announcement as they are not suitable animals for the farm corner.

The emus, which make a very unusual low booming sound, are a breeding pair: they mate for life.

Mr Cole said emus bred twice per year, first a disorganised clutch of 15 to 22 eggs almost like a practise run and second a more serious attempt at breeding. The male spends 55 weeks sitting on the eggs, Mr Cole said, while the female continued life as normal. Each egg weighs up to half a kilo.

The male, which is smaller than the female, survives on accumulated body fat and any water within reach. He stands up only to turn the eggs, about 10 times a day.

Emus eat grains, flowers, berries, soft shoots, insects, grubs and whatever else they can find. They eat stones to help digest the food.

The emus have joined the park's ever-expanding population of trekking llamas, dogs, ducks, pigs, goats, donkeys and even a fallow deer. Mr Cole said he had no plans to further expand his exotic animal population and would now focus on building new and improved pens and may get more pigs.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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