Why emus cannot fly
A flying bird needs big wings and powerful flight muscles, and those muscles anchor to the keel, a ridge down the middle of the breastbone. Emus have neither. Their wings are reduced to less than 8 inches, and their breastbone is flat, with no keel at all. That flat breastbone is what makes a bird a ratite.
What emus do instead
- Run: up to about 30 miles an hour, and they can keep it up for quite a distance
- Stride: almost 9 feet at a full run
- Jump: about 7 feet straight up, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance says
- Swim: emus are strong swimmers and will cross rivers
The other birds that cannot fly
Emus are ratites, like the ostrich, the rhea, the cassowary and the kiwi, all birds of the Southern Hemisphere. The extinct elephant birds and moas were ratites too. The ostrich, the largest of them, cannot fly either.
The emus at Kaleidoscope Desert
You will not see an emu fly here, but you may see one run. When the emus decide it is time to run laps, everyone gets out of the way. Whitey the white emu, Blondie, Martini, Spicoli and Night Moves are among them.
Kaleidoscope Desert is a nonprofit art and animal sanctuary on 7.5 acres in Morongo Valley, California, 15 minutes from Joshua Tree and 20 minutes from Palm Springs, where more than 100 animals roam free among the art.
You meet them on the Sanctuary Tour, a guided walk of about 90 minutes that runs daily, with someone who knows every resident by name and their stories. The animals come over on their own terms. Every visit is for adults, 18 and over.
100% of proceeds go to the animals: their rescue, their care, and the sanctuary they live in. Kaleidoscope Desert Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.