page_title: King Island emu
section_title: Transported specimens
hierarchical_section_title: King Island emu / Relationship with humans / Transported specimens
caption_attribution_description: On a Specimen of the Extinct Dromceus ater discovered in the Royal Zoological Museum, Florence. THE IBIS, QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY. VOL. I. Eighth Series 1901.
context_page_description: The King Island emu is an extinct subspecies of emu that was endemic to King Island, in the Bass Strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania. Its closest relative may be the extinct Tasmanian emu, as they belonged to a single population until less than 14,000 years ago when Tasmania and King Island were still connected. The small size of the King Island emu may be an example of insular dwarfism. The King Island emu was the smallest of all known emus and had darker plumage than the mainland emu. It was black and brown and had naked blue skin on the neck, and its chicks were striped like those on the mainland. The subspecies was distinct from the likewise diminutive Kangaroo Island emu in a number of osteological details, including size. The behaviour of the King Island emu probably did not differ much from that of the mainland emu. The birds gathered in flocks to forage and during breeding time. They fed on berries, grass and seaweed. They ran swiftly and could defend themselves by kicking. The nest was shallow and consisted of dead leaves and moss. Seven to nine eggs were laid, which were incubated by both parents.
context_section_description: Several emu specimens belonging to the different subspecies were sent to France, both live and dead, as part of the expedition. Some of these exist in European museums today. Le Naturaliste brought one live specimen and one skin of the mainland emu to France in June 1803. Le Géographe collected emus from both King and Kangaroo Island, and at least two live King Island individuals, assumed to be a male and female by some sources, were taken to France in March 1804. This ship also brought skins of five juveniles collected from different islands. Two of these skins, of which the provenance is unknown, are presently kept in Paris and Turin; the rest are lost. In addition to rats, cockroaches, and other inconveniences aboard the ships, the emus were incommoded by the rough weather which caused the ships to shake violently; some died as a result, while others had to be force fed so they did not starve to death. In all, Le Géographe brought 73 live animals of various species back to France.
  The two individuals brought to France were first kept in captivity in the menagerie of Empress Josephine, and were moved to the Jardin des Plantes after a year. The "female" died in April 1822, and its skin is now mounted in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle of Paris. The "male" died in May 1822, and is preserved as a skeleton in the same museum. A feather of the Paris skin was given to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the only confirmed feather belonging to this subspecies currently in Australia. The Paris skin contains several bones, but not the pelvis, which is an indicator of sex, so the supposed female identity is unconfirmed. Péron noted that the small emus brought to France were distinct from those of the mainland, but not that they were distinct from each other, or which island each had come from, so their provenance was unknown for more than a century later.
  There is also a skeleton in the Royal Zoological Museum, Florence, which it obtained from France in 1833, but was mislabelled as a cassowary and used by students until correctly identified by Italian zoologist Enrico Hillyer Giglioli in 1900. The skeleton is worn, and several elements are missing, some having been replaced with wooden copies (probably based on those of the Paris skeleton), including the pectoral girdle, the wings, and parts of the legs and skull. Its right metatarsus was damaged during life and had healed incorrectly. It was thought to be a male, but is now known to be a composite of two individuals. A fourth specimen was thought to be kept in the Liverpool Museum, but it may simply be a juvenile mainland emu. Apart from the King Island emu specimens brought to France, a few are also known to have been brought to mainland Australia in 1803, but their fate is unknown.
caption: Skeleton in the Royal Zoological Museum, Florence, with reconstructed bones
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