After a month on the run, New Hampshire’s elusive emu returns home—to Vermont
After roughly 80 miles traveled and more than a month on the run, the elusive New Hampshire emu caught last weekend was returned Sunday to its home on a Vermont farm.
The Concord Monitor’s Casey McDermott reports that Kermit Blackwood, the owner of a Townshend, Vermont farm, thought it was a longshot that the infamous emu that had residents of Bow, New Hampshire on pursuit for more than a week was his Beatrice.
Until about a month ago, Blackwood said, the farm had six emus in its current flock. Then, a few went missing. One was eaten, likely by a coywolf. Another was found in a neighboring town. He assumed the remaining bird was also gone for good.
When a strange, unaccounted-for bird started making headlines after it showed up in Bow, a few people back in Vermont reached out to Blackwood to suggest that this emu might belong back with the rest at Taft Hill.
Blackwood thought it was unlikely the bird was his, given its trip would require covering at least 80 miles and crossing the Connecticut River, which runs the Vermont-New Hampshire border.
But he got in his Toyota Prius drove to Henniker, New Hampshire, where the bird was being kept at a wildlife rehabilitation center, to find out anyway.
Upon his arrival and a careful reintroduction, the emu “rolled its neck toward Blackwood,’’ a unique greeting of recognition.
Beatrice the emu in the trunk of a Toyota Prius.
“She absolutely recognized me,’’ Blackwood told the Monitor. “And I recognized her.’’
So Blackwood and another farm worker wrapped the bird in a blanket, tucked it into the back of the Prius, and drove 90 minutes back to the farm. By Sunday afternoon, Beatrice had reunited with her flock.
The bird, first sighted September 11, gained somewhat of celebrity status during its week on the loose in Bow, puzzling residents with its unknown origins, spurring a parody Twitter account, and even getting a name-drop from Hillary Clinton’s Twitter account.
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The emu was eventually caught in a Bow resident’s backyard September 20, but only after giving one of its captors a bite on the arm and a kick in the stomach, according to the Monitor. It eventually took three men and a net to reign in the 5-foot-tall bird.
Read the full story of the elusive emu’s return home (as well as its capture and its original appearance) over on the Concord Monitor’s website.
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