Sometimes if you spend enough time with someone, you start behaving like them. That’s exactly what Emu – an appropriately named emu – has done. A few years ago the emu found itself at the Alice Springs Mounted Police station in Australia, where he decided to hang out with the horses. He apparently enjoyed their company so much that he hasn’t left.
“Emu stays whether we want him here or not. Emu is just called Emu and certainly by his behavior we get the impression that he thinks he is a horse,” Senior Sergeant Melinda Edwards told ABC.net.au. “He has taken on the equine lifestyle. He follows the horses in and out of the paddock. As the horses gallop away, he gallops off with them.”
Not all of the five horses are happy to be friends with the bird. “We’ve got five horses out here and there are two he is friendly with and the other three are not so keen on him,” Edwards said. “But Emu has made his choice and decided to make the mounted police unit his home for now at least.”
Meet the emu who shacked up with police horses 3 years ago and decided to stay @abcnewsNT https://t.co/E0ZWbj9eAG pic.twitter.com/rexRZlTyvS
— ABC Rural (@ABCRural) June 24, 2015
While some have suggested Emu be repatriated, he has lived with the mounted police for so long that he’s become domesticated. Domesticated like a horse.
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