The reasons why people and entire nations start war often is very controversial, if not completely ridiculous. Wars will always cost at least the life of one human being which definitely proves that wars are never worth it. The so called Emu War probably is one of the strangest wars ever thought. Why? Well, as the name already says, it deals with the war between the Australians and the Australian emus in the year 1932. Yes, you heard right. Emus, I’m referring to the birds! BIRDS!
But why? Just, why? The reason seems to be simple: Since Australia is a surely hot continent which suffers from water scarcity, emus are forced to live in a semi-nomadic way. If they are out of water, they will wander until they find new water sources. On their wanderings, they can cause real stampedes, which can destroy cornfields. Some people even claimed that they ran amok in some case, demolishing houses and yards on the search for food and water.
Shortly after the Australians acknowledged the emus as a threat, the Australian government declared war against them. A stampede caused by 20.000 birds was expected, which led soldiers to prepare themselves for this fight with real machine-guns. When the birds appeared, the soldiers started to shoot. But in the end, only 12 birds in total were shot dead due to the birds’ agility. The rest of the bird population moved on, rendering the continuation of the war completely useless.
Later on, a kind of bounty fee system was established for the emus until the British crown abolished it. Today, big fence constructions protect the farmers from emus.
Copyright and Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War
