Escaped emu in Noonan, N.B. finally captured

A six-feet-tall, 160-pound, blue emu is back on a Noonan, New Brunswick farm tonight, after being on the loose for most of the Saturday.

Mike Sorenson, owner of the elusive bird and a petting zoo operator, said he and a friend chased the emu through the woods for about three hours before herding it back toward the farm.

`"Issac managed to spin it around with his prime emu herding skills and i completed the kill with a full blown tackle in a mud hole. The fugitive is now locked in the barn under heavy guard!!!" he tweeted.

Earlier Saturday, he said something must have spooked the large bird to the point where it scaled the fence and escaped.

"We haven't seen it since Saturday morning," said Sorenson. "It will be pretty hard to catch, they're so fast."

Emus are the world's second largest species of bird, second only to ostriches.

Sorenson posted on Facebook Saturday afternoon "EMU missing in the Noonan area….anyone seen it ??"

At around 4:30 PM another post stated that Sorenson had located the bird, but had yet to capture it.

"Found him…now to catch him in the middle of the woods." 

Sorenson said the animal isn't considered especially dangerous unless cornered or mishandled.

"If you try and grab it, and you grab it the wrong way. It can be fairly dangerous. Their front legs don't pull backwards they go frontwards, so if they kick at you they can disembowel you potentially."

He warned that anyone who did come across the giant bird should not to approach it or to try and grab it.