The War Australia Lost to Emus

An army once lost to birds. In the closing months of nineteen thirty-two, wheat farmers in Western Australia found their crop under assault from emus, tall flightless birds that had descended on the region in their thousands in search of water and discovered fields of grain instead.

Jeshi hapo zamani liliwahi kushindwa na ndege. Katika miezi ya mwisho ya mwaka wa elfu moja mia tisa thelathini na mbili, wakulima wa ngano katika Australia Magharibi waligundua mazao yao yakishambuliwa na emu, ndege warefu wasioruka waliokuwa wameshuka eneo hilo kwa maelfu wakitafuta maji na badala yake wakagundua mashamba ya nafaka.

The farmers appealed to the government, which dispatched soldiers armed with two machine guns and ten thousand rounds of ammunition. On paper it looked like no contest. In the fields, matters unfolded rather differently. Emus run at considerable speed, turn sharply, and require a great deal of stopping, and after the opening bursts of fire the flocks scattered into small, mobile groups and carried on. The guns jammed repeatedly. A truck was pressed into service, only for the terrain to prove far too rough to aim from.

Wakulima waliomba msaada wa serikali, iliyotuma askari wenye silaha mbili za bunduki za mashine na risasi elfu kumi. Kwenye karatasi ilionekana kutokuwa na ushindani wowote. Mashambani, mambo yalijitokeza tofauti kabisa. Emu wanakimbia kwa kasi kubwa, wanageuka kwa haraka, na wanahitaji juhudi kubwa kusimamishwa, na baada ya mfululizo wa kwanza wa risasi makundi hayo yalitawanyika kuwa vikundi vidogo vinavyosogea na kuendelea. Bunduki hizo zilikwama mara kwa mara. Lori lilitumika, ila ardhi ilithibitika kuwa mbaya mno kulenga kutoka humo.

After roughly a month, the soldiers withdrew. Fewer than a thousand birds had been killed out of a population many times that size, newspapers across the world had an enjoyable time with the story, and the emus, unaware that war had been declared upon them, returned to eating the wheat.

Baada ya mwezi mmoja hivi, askari hao waliondoka. Chini ya ndege elfu moja walikuwa wameuawa kutoka idadi ya watu mara nyingi zaidi ya hiyo, magazeti duniani kote yalifurahia habari hiyo, na emu, bila kujua kwamba vita vilikuwa vimetangazwa dhidi yao, walirejea kula ngano.