Photo: Tristyn Hay

Emu spotted on on Goudie Road off Highway 33, September 10, 2023.

The case of the elusive emu has been solved.

Social media has been busy tracking the adventures of an emu that somehow ended up in Kelowna's backcountry. The first post showed the emu on Goudie Road off Highway 33 on Sept. 10.

Three days later on Sept. 13, the emu was spotted on Postill Lake Road at about the 12-kilometre mark.

Tristyn Hay, who operates Happy Hooves Animal Sanctuary in Kelowna, says she immediately felt for the owner of the emu when she saw one of the social media posts.

"I was thinking about our guy and that's why we went looking — I would want someone to look for our emu if it went missing," Hay said.

Hay recently needed help to corral her emu Bea, who got out of its pen after being spooked by wildfires. Before that, another one of her emus was scared by fireworks, ran off, and was killed by a pack of coyotes.

Hay says emus aren't renowned for their intelligence but they are very good jumpers, "if they're scared — ours cleared a six-foot fence. We recently bumped ours to seven and eight feet high just because we don't want any of our other emus to jump."

The story for this latest big bird has a happy ending. After being on the lam for nine days and travelling many kilometres, Hay says the emu has been safely returned to its owner.

Hay says the emu seems to have kept working its way in the wrong direction, "they don't have the best sense of direction."

She said it was found hanging out with cattle near a home in the Ellison area. The farmer called Hay thinking it could have belonged to her, so Hay helped the farmer get in touch with the rightful owner.

"It all worked out in the end."