Antelopes and Emus

I was reading over at a gun forum and saw where some folks from Safari International and a local native tribe have released a bunch of antelope on the reservation, trying to re-establish a breeding herd. I wish them luck. They didn't get permission from the Gummint, and that's a good thing. If you've got to ask permission, the answer is proba-bly NO.

That reminds me when some folks tried to establish breeding populations of Emu in Louisiana.

Back in the late '80s or early '90s a bunch of folks thought that there was an economic benefit to raising emu. Emu eggs were going for hundreds of dollars apiece, and emu leather was in strong demand for custom boots and belts. Emu meat was supposed to be high in protein, low in all the bad stuff, and some farmers invested quite heavily in emu. Unfortunately, the bottom dropped out of the market and what was once a high-dollar bird suddenly wasn't worth the feed he was getting every morning.

The good farmers ate their losses. Those who couldn't stomach (pun intended) the butchering tasks took another route. A pickup truck and a cattle trailer would drive slowly down a logging road on a moonless night. The brake lights would come on, you'd hear a metal gate open then slam shut, and somebody would have just gone out of the emu business.

It caused quite a stir in all the deer camps. I have to admit that the sight of an emu under your deer feeder is a bit disconcerting. The coyotes wouldn't mess with them, because a couple of emus can put a hurting on a small coyote pack. The hunters shot some, but I believe that the fire ants had a bigger impact than anything. Emus are ground-nesters and they lay their eggs on the ground. Fire ants will eat eggs on the ground and they can get a lot of help quickly.

The Emus just weren't suited to life in the pine woods of north central Louisiana and they died out pretty quickly.

I hope that those antelope fare a lot better.