In 1932, Australia sent soldiers with Lewis machine guns against 20,000 emus destroying wheat farms in the west, and pulled them out within weeks after nearly 10,000 rounds achieved almost nothing, because the birds simply split into small groups that trucks couldn’t follow — the press declared the emus the winners

A military campaign to stop emus destroying crops became a national embarrassment when the birds outsmarted bullets, terrain, and government resolve in just weeks.