Emu Headbutts Captor After Escaping Farm
A man's attempt to wrangle an escaped emu ends with him being headbutted and the bird returning to its enclosure.
An escaped emu engaged in a dramatic struggle with a man attempting to recapture it, ultimately headbutting him before returning to its enclosure. The incident occurred on September 9 on a country road in Salcombe, Devon, after the bird had bolted from its holding.
Footage captured by James Barker, who was driving by, shows a man wrestling with the defiant emu. At one point, the man attempts to pin the bird down and calls out, "Emu down, emu down!" in an effort to get assistance from farm staff.
After scuffling for more than 20 seconds, the emu headbutted its captor, sending him to the other side of the road. The bird then trotted back into the gated property from which it had escaped.
Barker, who filmed the event, described it as entertaining, noting the presence of an alpaca watching the struggle from inside the farm's gate. "It's not something you see every day," Barker said. "I had to take a video otherwise people wouldn't believe me."
Barker's wife, Ro Barker, shared the video on social media, where it reportedly garnered over two million views. One commenter described the video as making their day.