The Bulletproof Bird

"The Bulletproof Bird – The year the Australian army lost a war against emus" recounts the Great Emu War of 1932. Following WWI, Australian veterans were given farmland in Western Australia, only to have their crops destroyed by 20,000 migrating emus. The government sent the Royal Australian Artillery, armed with Lewis machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition, to cull the birds. Historian Jack Outback details the humiliating defeat. The emus proved to be master tacticians, splitting into small guerrilla groups and running at 30 mph, making them nearly impossible to hit. After weeks of shooting, only a few hundred birds were killed. The commander famously noted that if his division had the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds, they could face any army in the world. "The Bulletproof Bird" is a hilarious yet poignant story about man's arrogance against nature. It shows that sometimes, despite superior firepower, the environment simply refuses to be conquered.