Small Private Zoo

TinoPup said:
You get a pass since you knew what you were doing (though I hope no visitors saw you!). Even with warning signs, the general public doesn't understand what these birds can do, they just think they're pretty emus.
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Trust me, no one saw. I only advocate irresponsibility when only I’m going to be impacted. Never jeopardize the safety of staff, visitors, or animals
 
Neil chace said:
Even emus can do a lot more damage than people would expect! Ratites as a whole are not birds I'd want to mess with.
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Emus were two enclosures over from one cassowary petting incident, and a kid got bit by one while I was there. I don't go near ratites and roll my windows up if they're approaching on a drive-through safari :D But they at least probably aren't going to severely injure or kill you, like a cassowary might. I've seen one charge a kid it didn't like and the family had no idea how fortunate they were that a fence stopped it.
 
I've actually seen visitors get bit by Emus they were trying to pet through a shoddy fence (at Timbavati Wildlife Park). The person I saw reached through the fence to try to pet the Emu and it bit them. They said: "Ow! I wonder if it would do it again?" and the exact same scene played out a second time. :p

Also, this gem of a scene at Doc's Harley-Davidson Zoo (yes, that's a real zoo):
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It's always funny to me that Americans think Emus are dangerous when in Australasia they are commonly just kept in walk-through enclosures because they are so harmless.

Anyway, here are a couple of cassowary enclosures I've seen which are a bit worrisome. The first is at Songkhla Zoo in Thailand (the fence is at the cassowary's chest-height when it is standing upright), and the second is at Taiping Zoo in Malaysia (the fence is inward-facing, but I reckon a cassowary could clear it easily if it wanted).

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Chlidonias said:
It's always funny to me that Americans think Emus are dangerous when in Australasia they are commonly just kept in walk-through enclosures because they are so harmless.

Anyway, here are a couple of cassowary enclosures I've seen which are a bit worrisome. The first is at Songkhla Zoo in Thailand (the fence is at the cassowary's chest-height when it is standing upright), and the second is at Taiping Zoo in Malaysia (the fence is inward-facing, but I reckon a cassowary could clear it easily if it wanted).

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American zoos specifically avoid putting Emus in walk-throughs because they are too dangerous. Do with that what you will.
 
birdsandbats said:
I've actually seen visitors get bit by Emus they were trying to pet through a shoddy fence (at Timbavati Wildlife Park). The person I saw reached through the fence to try to pet the Emu and it bit them. They said: "Ow! I wonder if it would do it again?" and the exact same scene played out a second time. :p

Also, this gem of a scene at Doc's Harley-Davidson Zoo (yes, that's a real zoo):
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One of the emus at Zoo Stralsund's walkthrough exhibit clearly didn't like me. I had no problem dealing with it, but I'm not so sure about Joe Average zoo visitors...

Regarding the original topic: that’s quite a lot of cost-intensive species for such a small zoo...
 
Neil chace said:
Yeah, I'm aware of quite a few walk-through exhibits with a separate exhibit for emus right next to it.
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I've already seen Emus in large (but not very interesting, in zoological terms) walkthrough exhibits in France.
They were mixed with domesticated or common animals like Goats, Sheep, Llamas, Alpacas or Red-necked Wallabies.
Nonetheless the birds had enough space to flee if they felt too much disturbed by the visitors or by the other animals.
 
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