Can emus survive in the wild in Pennsylvania?

[xxnativewolfxx]

Ok now that i have gotten your attention! =) Before everyone attacks me for the question in the title......I understand that it is illegal and just plain morally WRONG both to the people and to the animal itself to release it into the wild. I would NEVER! and I do not advocate it. OK now that thats covered....It is a question that i have asked myself a couple times one of those JUST encase a fire or a big storm happens ect and i would have to release my emus from there pens, or they escape threw a tree hitting there fence ect. Could they survive here in PA .. and I have been asked this question MORE times than i care to ask! and i just simply do no have the answer to them. I know these birds are one of the HARDIEST creatures i have EVER come across! sleeping in the snow ect. but last year in pa where i live....a whole month straight went into the -s barely reaching 10 degrees (WHERE I LIVE) and with the wind chill MANY nights went to -35 and colder! i mean thats COLD! I know in Australia there tempts are different in different times of the year ect and in different areas. ok so thats my question. I am JUST curious folks!!! Do not jump down my throats for a question! if you read the beginning i am not planning on releasing my emus!

 

[briefvisit]

The best bit of data I have on this, xx, came from some phone calls I made a couple of years ago, just when I was giving up my formal study of emus:

we had considered a range of maps of Where Emus Live in Australia. They varied wildly in their data -- obviously inaccurate. The two issues were: first, the one that doesn't concern you -- how far out into the harshest parts of Oz do they go. (Answer: a long way.)

Second: how high up the Great Dividing Range do they go? The Range is the only part of Oz that gets regular snow. (We have more snow than Switzerland! We just keep it tucked away -- winter only -- on the southern half of the Range. (And some other time, we can consider emus in Tasmania!) )

So, I rang some small towns in the mountains of New South Wales. Half the people I spoke to didn't really understand the question (probably thought I was trying to sell them insurance or something , , , )

Two people, both elderly, clearly understood the questions. Both gave the same answer (and they both lived in the bush in that district as kids):

Nah, emus don't normally range as far up into snow country as I told them the maps indicate.

[Got Felicity and Number One are here this morning, and a wild male called 'Droopy,' who is driving Felicity crazy by sneaking around and around the edge of the clearing.]

SE

 

[ghost1000]

just did a google search on this subject. i can tell you i am in bedford county ,pa near a town called clearville on maryland border. We have a second home here and i went and checked my trail cameras on one trip in oct. Low and behold i see this huge bird which i knew right away was an emu. Dont know where it came from or where it went . Only 1 pic on the camera of it. Fast forward to new years week ,we were up and 4 " of snow on the ground. So i took dogs for a walk down the lane (dirt road), and i stumble on a set of emu tracks which were following side by side and hopping like a kangaroo pattern but only foot to 2 apart....fast forward again...following the tracks and come up to a tree and the tracks both same direction split around the tree...and im thinking ..HUH. Obviously there were 2 emus following inline perfect cadence till the tree split them up for a few yards then back together again.. No idea how they got here other than to surmise a farm down the road might have been raising them and they escaped....but to answer your question....yes they can survive here and are on this mountain. Odd also is that we have quite a few coyotes here that regularly call back and forth. Im sure an adult emu can take care of itself against them ,but not so much the chicks if they end up having them in the wild...