Escaped emu found after five days in Fernhurst

WILFRED the emu enjoys his last moments of freedom after five days on the run.

The feathered fiend gave its owners quite the runaround having jumped out of its field in Fernhurst.

A few days after being spotted near Shulbrede, it was tracked down last Thursday on Lynchmere Commons running along the fence.

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Judy Rous, chairman of the Lynchmere Society, said: “The Lynchmere Society is all about conservation but we never thought of becoming a safari park.”

The runaway emu in LynchmereThe runaway emu in Lynchmere
The runaway emu in Lynchmere

Mrs Rous made a few calls and managed to find worried owner Adam Clayton, who soon arrived with food, sacking and a trailer.

The adventure seemed to have worn Wilfred out and, helped by his cousin, Mr Clayton took advantage of the bird having a rest.

The pair ‘rugger tackled’ the emu, wrapping it in the sacking to prevent another escape attempt.

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“If it had been standing up, we would never have caught it,” he said.

The result was the best all round as Mr Clayton added: “If we had not caught it then we would have had to destroy him.”

It is believed Wilfred, a rescue emu, had taken the first chance it had to flee because it was so unused to open space.

Happily it is settling in to a smaller paddock spending time ‘getting to know the girls’, and ‘playing with his large bouncy ball’.

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