Sep 7, 2022 4 min read

It was an “emu-tional” reunion on Labor Day for Aram Asarian and his two wayward emus.

The gentleman farmer from North Bethlehem Township found the emus he named Stevie and Nicks in a field a couple miles from his property Monday after they spent several days on the lam, and he was able to corral the birds in his Jeep to bring them home.

“I was full of anxiety and fear of what could happen to them,” Asarian said of his mindset over the weekend. “I was also mentally preparing myself if they would come home or wouldn’t come home. It was out of my hands.”

Stevie and Nicks, two 4-month-old male emus named for the lead singer from Fleetwood Mac, went missing Thursday afternoon after they jumped over a fence and fled their pen on Asarian’s property near Route 40. Asarian received three phone calls from people who had spotted the emus in the days after they had disappeared. But Asarian knew his best chance to bring them home was when someone saw them about 2:30 p.m. Monday on a hillside overlooking the intersection at Route 40 and Route 519.

He and a couple of friends eventually found them by a fence and Asarian called them by name while holding out spinach for them to eat, prompting the two juvenile emus to run over to him.

“They recognized my voice. They came running around the bend hearing my voice. They seemed really hungry and happy to see me,” Asarian said. “They seemed fairly desperate to see me. They ate the spinach right out of my hand.

“I was so ’emu-tional’ to see them,” Asarian added with a light-hearted play on words.

He lured them into the rear of his Jeep and they went “bouncing around like crazy” during the short drive back to his farm.

It was the end to a whirlwind holiday weekend for Asarian as a range of thoughts went through his head over whether he would ever see Stevie and Nicks again.

A neighbor, Randy Guthrie, first spotted them Thursday afternoon not long after they escaped, but they were quickly gone again. Guthrie said he was shocked to see the nearly 5-foot-tall birds and didn’t know whom to contact about them.

“The emus came through (my) farm,” Guthrie said of that initial sighting. “I saw them going through the woods but didn’t know whose they were.”

He later saw Asarian’s social media posts and stayed on the lookout for the rest of the weekend.

“I see a lot of things on the farm, but emus aren’t one of them,” he said.

When he saw them for a second time Monday afternoon, he called Asarian and even showed him the exact spot, setting up the rescue. Asarian said if not for the efforts of Guthrie and others in the community, he may never have seen Stevie and Nicks again. James Dudt, who is a North Bethlehem Township supervisor and lives on a nearby farm, spent Saturday helping Asarian search the fields.

“I’m beyond grateful for the community putting the time and energy driving around and searching for my babies,” Asarian said. “I’m getting emotional just talking bout it. But I’m beyond appreciative of everyone’s concern.”

The emus came home relatively healthy, albeit noticeably thinner with some scuffs on their chests where they may have bumped into fencing bordering other farms. They’re now in an enclosed pen while Asarian works to build a taller fence to keep them from breaking free again. The elusive duo will eventually join Asarian’s other adult female emu, Amelie, in a larger pen.

“We don’t want a repeat event,” Asarian said. “I’m baffled I got them back.”