PEACH BOTTOM, Pa. - That faint beating sound you can hear from Bonita Meadow’s farm is the mating call of Elkton, a male emu missing his mate, Alpha.
“I'm hoping to get her back because they are like a couple,” Meadow says.
She still has not figured out how Alpha got loose on Saturday morning, considering Alpha’s pen looked like it normally does, and a strange thought since emus can't fly.
“She is about 6 to 7 feet tall, about 110 pounds,” Meadow said. “She is a sweetheart, she's very intelligent, she's the leader of the whole pack.”
She has been spotted by neighbors nearby since then.
“She was last seen [Monday] between 12 and 12:30 down the road here, before that, she was seen around 3 o'clock in the afternoon on Sunday between the corn and the woods here.” Meadow said.
Meadow's animals include other emus, a bull named Mr. Moo, potbelly pigs and chickens. They have been a delight for children in the neighborhood, and Meadow enjoys taking care of them.
“I just think they're interesting, I think they're different and unique and one of a kind and they are really intelligent and gentle,” she said.
But as the days pass without seeing Alpha, there's growing concern about getting her back.
“She could live off the property for so long, live off the creeks and so forth but my concern is people shooting around here, hunting, and taking her, eating her as meat or something,” Meadow said.
So if you see an emu on the loose, she has a family hoping for her safe return.