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Kim Sheppard-Lee watched a young emu squeeze through a small gap in a fence the Wednesday before last and disappear across an alfalfa field just hours after it arrived at her hobby farm in Luseland.
“I actually saw him do it,” she recalled. “By the time that I could get the fence undone and get out to him, he was in the middle of my alfalfa field.”
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She said she tried to follow, hoping to stop the frightened bird before it reached open country.
“He was so scared that every step I took, he took about 20,” she said. “He gained 200 feet on me in minutes.”
More than a week later, she is still searching. But what began as the hunt for a missing pet has since become a race against time.
The juvenile emu is still wearing an identification tag fastened with what Sheppard-Lee described as a thick, plastic zip tie. After removing an identical tag from the second young emu that remained at home, she said she fears the tag on the missing bird could tighten around its leg as it continues to grow.
“As he grows, these will tighten and cause him to lose his legs,” she stated.
“At this point, it’s pretty critical that we can get him soon, before something like that happens.”
The emu was one of two juveniles Sheppard-Lee brought home that day after purchasing them through an Alberta auction. The birds had originally come from the United States.
“I let them out into my yard and they were all running with the other emus and the other birds,” she said.
When evening came, Sheppard-Lee said she began locking up the animals for the night. But the new arrival, unfamiliar with its surroundings, panicked.
“He was getting panicky because he didn’t know routines or know the home yet,” she said.
Realizing she was only pushing the flightless bird further away, Sheppard-Lee said she backed off and hoped the bird might return after hearing the other emus. It didn’t.
Since then, she said she has enlisted a drone operator, alerted local police and aerial spraying companies, and shared the emu’s photo widely on social media in hopes someone recognizes it. A reported sighting southwest of Luseland several days later prompted another search, but the bird wasn’t found before nightfall.
Sheppard-Lee said she believes someone spotting the emu could make all the difference.
“The best thing to do, if they’re able to, is to right away take a picture,” she said.
“Approaching him and trying to catch him, he’s just gonna run, because he is in what you call ‘fight-or-flight’ mode.”
Instead, she hopes anyone who sees the bird can keep it in sight while she and a drone operator make their way to the area, allowing the emu to settle down before attempting a careful rescue.
The bird also faces dangers beyond remaining lost, Sheppard-Lee added.
“They still are so much at risk at night, because they can’t see and they have to go to sleep,” Sheppard-Lee said, adding that coyotes, foxes and even farm dogs could threaten the animal while it rests.
The most recently reported sighting came from a resident near St. Walburg on Saturday, who believed they had seen the emu.
Despite its unusual appearance, Sheppard-Lee said the young emu poses no danger to humans.
“He’s not a danger, because he’s just a baby still,” she said. “He’s not mean. He’s not aggressive. He’s just scared.”
For now, Sheppard-Lee is asking anyone who spots the emu not to chase it, but to take a photo, keep it in sight if possible and call or text her at 403-594-4200.
