Emu The pelvic limb muscles of emus contribute a similar proportion of the total body mass as do the flight muscles of flying birds. When walking, the emu takes strides of about , but at full gallop, a stride can be as long as . Its legs are devoid of feathers and underneath its feet are thick, cushioned pads. Like the cassowary, the emu has sharp claws on its toes which are its major defensive attribute, and are used in combat to inflict wounds on opponents by kicking. The toe and claw total in length. The bill is quite small, measuring
Tasmanian emu agreed with the mainland birds in measurements and the external characters used to distinguish it—a whitish instead of black foreneck and throat and an unfeathered neck—apparently are also present, albeit rare, in some mainland birds. There are suggestions the bird was slightly smaller than the modern emu, but in conflict, other evidence (including descriptions of Pleistocene remains) indicates that both are similar in size. Today, it is apparently only known from subfossil bones, the skins which once existed having been lost. The Tasmanian emu was, as the mainland birds, hunted as a pest. In addition, the practice of setting fire