An emu who escaped from his home in the Lake Lorraine subdivision near Goldman north of Hillsboro had a few days of freedom before his capture on Jan. 19, said Brooke Barlos, who volunteers with Bi-State Wildlife Hotline, a nonprofit animal rescue group.
“I got called Jan. 19,” Barlos of St. Charles said. “Jan. 18 was when (the lost emu) was posted online. It had been loose for a couple of days before that.”
She said some Lake Lorraine residents who were worried about the bird’s safety had been tracking it when she and a friend arrived.
“Some of the people had kind of cornered it in a yard,” Barlos said. “It’s about a half-acre yard. It took us about 10 minutes to get him in a crate. I wrapped a blanket around him and gently put him in a crate. My friend, Jen Bess, helped.”
The owner of the emu, an older man who lives in the subdivision, could not be reached for comment.
He reportedly had named the bird Ugly.
Due to the owner’s health problems, he reportedly turned over the emu to Barlos, who soon found a home for him, as well as a new name.
“His name was Ugly, but it’s no longer his name,” Barlos said. “I was calling him Reggie. He’s going to live on a friend’s farm in Farmington. What they call him is up to them.”
Barlos said the emu is thought to be 15 to 20 years old and seems to be in good health.
She said emus are sturdy creatures, but it's fortunate friendly folks found him and not a predator or an unfriendly human.
“He weighs about 80 pounds and is about 6-foot-1 when he stretches out,” Barlos said. “Emus can be aggressive. They’re surprisingly pretty weather-hardy. But, because they sleep overnight, they’re kind of sitting ducks for predators."
She said the incident ended on a happy note, though.
Renee Gerlach, who runs the Lake Lorraine News Facebook page, praised Barlos and subdivision residents for safely catching the emu.
“The emu is in a safe place because of a lot of soft-hearted people,” Gerlach said. “I think it’s great all these people came together to save this bird.”
Gerlach said the emu was at risk while on the loose.
“People were shooting up into the air to frighten the emu,” she said. “I just wanted the poor thing to get out of the cold.”
Gerlach said she contacted a friend of hers at the Jefferson County Pet Food Pantry for advice about who to call to help rescue the emu. The friend put Gerlach in touch with Barlos, who said Reggie is the lone emu at his new home.
She also said she intends to try to remedy that situation.
“We will end up getting him a girlfriend,” Barlos said. “Emus are very social.”
A video of the emu’s capture can be found on the Lake Lorraine News Facebook page.