Posted Sat at 9:33pm
It's hard to imagine free-ranging
emus foraging across Tasmanian plains in 2019.
But, there is a reason why Burnie
used to be called Emu Bay. The large flightless birds once called the island
state home.
The University of Tasmania's
Tristan Derham said the birds were throughout Tasmania's midlands and the
north-east and north-west of the state.
"It's not really clear why
the emu went extinct in Tasmania," he said.
The emus were said to be a
smaller sub-species of the mainland emus but there are few detailed
descriptions of the bird.
Mr Derham said he had researched
eyewitness accounts of emus through reports by divisive colonial leader George
Augustus Robinson, explorer Matthew Flinders and the diaries of clergyman
Robert Knopwood.
"I haven't found a lot of
evidence they were much different from mainland emus," he told ABC Radio
Hobart.
European settlers recorded
feasting on emus and kangaroos upon arrival in Van Diemen's Land.
"The early colonists were
crazy for hunting emus and kangaroos," Mr Derham said.
The species survived in the wild
until 1865, and the last captive bird died in 1873.
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