- Mobs of famished emus are wreaking havoc in the Australian
Outback, crashing through fences and devouring crops as they flee the country's
worst drought in decades.
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- Some farmers have had just enough rain to plant one crop,
only to watch their annual income disappear into the emus' capacious bellies.
The towering, flightless birds can eat 2lb of grain a day. They have migrated
south in their thousands, laying waste to large tracts of agricultural
land.
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- The problem is so serious that farmers are calling for
a widespread cull of emus, which are a protected species and appear on
the national coat of arms alongside the kangaroo. Hungry kangaroos are
also invading farming country, but emus are more destructive and compete
with livestock for food.
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- "We put grain out for the sheep and the emus leap
on it," said Brendan O'Keeffe, who farms near Walgett, in western
New South Wales. "They tear into fences and knock them over. They
run up and hit people riding on motorbikes. They're just stupid."
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- John Lush, president of the South Australian Farmers
Federation, said: "They stand in the paddock and just chew the crop
until there's none left."
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- Conservationists who are opposed to any cull say that
the emu population has halved in the past 20 years, partly because of land
clearing and intensive farming.
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- The drought is exerting a heavy toll on Australia's wildlife.
Emaciated camels have been found dead in parched desert regions, and feral
pigs have attacked lambs.
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/australasia/story.jsp?story=325419
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