"That's a hell of a big turkey!" exclaimed a man from Lehigh Township, Northampton County, after he saw what appeared to be a very large bird wandering around his rural backyard. It was later identified as an emu, a six-foot flightless bird native to Australia.
Bob Leseberg, who lives on South Cypress Road between the towns of Berlinsville and Palmerton told his local paper, the Allentown Morning Call, that he called police to notify them of the very unusual sighting. The emu sighting occurred about 15 miles north of the city of Allentown in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley region.
The emu was definitely out of place, as its home of Australia is known for its rugged outback and desert regions, while the area the emu was sighted in sits no more than six miles from a noted ski area, at the foot of Blue Mountain, part of the Appalachian chain. Emus enjoy eating the grasses of 'Crocodile' Dundee's homeland, and Leseberg's new friend was less than happy with his offering of corn, which likely seemed foreign to the animal.
"I'm an animal lover, and there was just no way I could let him running around out there in the dark to get hit by a car," said Leseberg. "But...what do you do with an emu?"
After exiting his house to better view the foreign species, he found it to be taller than his 6'3" stature. He and a neighbor reportedly played cowboy in order to corral the bird, lassoing a rope around its long neck.
Emus and similar birds like the ostrich are very defensive and can badly injure or kill with their sharp claws and pointed beak. A kick from an emu could also easily shatter bones. However, Leseberg said the bird would allow him to scratch its neck on occasion: "I think it knew I was trying to help it," he said.
One of Leseberg's first thoughts of the bird's source was that the emu had escaped undetected from the Lehigh Valley Zoo in nearby Schnecksville. But, officials at the former Trexler Game Preserve said that all of their exotic species were accounted for. Philadelphia's CBS affiliate reported that after staying with Leseberg and his neighbors in Lehigh Township, the emu is now being sent to an emu farm in the Pocono Mountains.
See video of the emu sighting below, courtesy CBS-3; KYW-TV Philadelphia:
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