Emu on the Loose in Santa Cruz Gives CHP a First for the Books
A pet emu escaped onto the streets of Santa Cruz, darting into traffic before CHP officers and the owner corralled it — an encounter the agency called a first even for an organization used to handling loose animals.
A pet emu escaped onto the streets of Santa Cruz, California, this week, darting in and out of traffic near Harper Street and 17th Avenue until California Highway Patrol officers and the bird’s owner managed to corral it back to safety. CHP Santa Cruz posted about the incident afterward, noting that while the agency routinely handles calls involving “dogs, cats, deer, and occasionally birds, an Emu was unexpected!”
The emu had escaped from its owner and was running into traffic at Harper Street and 17th Avenue, according to SFGATE’s account of the incident. Multiple callers reported the loose bird to CHP, which dispatched officers to the scene. The owner arrived quickly and, with help from the officers, corralled the animal and got it home.
What sounds like a comic interlude carried real danger. SFGATE noted that the American Emu Association considers a loose emu on a highway a potential deadly risk to drivers — these are the world’s second-largest birds by height, capable of running at sustained speeds that make them a serious obstacle for anyone behind the wheel.
The population of privately kept emus in the United States has been growing steadily. SFGATE reported that 12,580 emus were reported living in the U.S. in 2022, raising the odds that encounters between the large flightless birds and unsuspecting motorists will keep happening as their numbers climb.
Santa Cruz County, for its part, appears to be getting more practice than most jurisdictions. Days after the Harper Street incident, per NBC Bay Area’s reporting, a separate emu was spotted loose in the county, this time prompting a chase involving Santa Cruz County sheriff’s deputies — suggesting that one escaped emu in a week may be unusual, but two starts to look like a local trend.