Escaped emu captured at Prince George, B.C., airport with the help of a local farmer
Staff at the airport in Prince George, B.C., say seeing animals like bears and moose on the grounds is fairly normal.
But not emu.
That was the reality this past Monday, when the large, brown bird made its way down an access road and onto airport property.
“That’s a really unusual sighting,” says Chrisie Berry, the community relations manager for the Prince George Airport, in an interview with CTV News Vancouver. “Emus are not exactly native to this area.”
Berry says she first saw social media posts about the emu wandering through the city and started following the story.
Then she was sent a video of the flightless bird running towards the airport and alerted the airport’s operations group.
“They were already aware the bird was there, so they were just kind of hanging out with it, keeping their distance and not stressing it out, just monitoring it, making sure it’s not going to go somewhere it shouldn’t be,” she says.
Berry says she then jumped in her car and drove to the airport to help with the emu she estimates is at least 5’ tall.
“But most of that is long neck and long legs,” she says.
The bird did not wander towards the airfield and generally left staff alone says Berry, adding it never became a threat to aviation operations. She says the emu was there for about three hours.
“We wanted it removed from airport property. That’s the best case scenario just so we don’t end up with an issue,” she says.
Berry says normally conservation officers or animal control would help with animals, but neither group had experience with the flightless bird. So, they worked with a local veterinary clinic that deals with exotic and large animals to find someone who could help corral the emu.
They pointed Berry in the direction of Brent Meise, the operator of the nearby Blackspruce Farm Tour.
“He has emu, but this wasn’t his emu,” she says. “But, he was nice enough to hook up a horse trailer and come get it for us.”
She says Meise was the hero of the day.
As for the bird’s current whereabouts, CTV News Vancouver has reached out to Blackspruce Farm Tour for more information.
“You never know what you’ll see at the airport and every day is different,” says Berry.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
Poilievre unrepentant over calling Trudeau 'wacko' as his MPs say Speaker should resign
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh confirms his party will support the Liberals' federal budget
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says his party will support the federal budget, ending any speculation that the party could pull out of its deal with the minority Liberal government.
Dental care program accepting claims for 1 million seniors
Citizens' Services Minister Terry Beech says 1,200 seniors have already visited a dentist and had their claims processed by the federal government's new dental care plan.