Emu Oil

Emu oil is derived from the Emu bird Dromaius novaehollandiae, a species native to the Australian continent. The subspecies of Emu that used to live on the island of Tasmania was eradicated by European settlers during the 18th century.

Emu oil is extracted from commercially farmed Emu birds. Emu farming is a relatively new occurrence, but Emu farmers and Emu oil producers can today be found in many different parts of the world, not only in Australia.

In Australia, Emu farming has occurred since 1987 and the first slaughtering of a commercially farmed Emu took place in 1990. The first commercial Emu farm was located in Western Australia. Today, all Australian states (with the exception of Tasmania) protect their wild Emu populations by license requirements and the commercial extraction of Emu oil is based exclusively on captive bred specimens.

Outside Australia, a majority of the worlds Emu farmers and Emu oil producers are located in North America, China and Peru. In the United States, you can find over 1 million Emu specimens in captivity. Getting Emu birds to breed in captivity is not very difficult, but it should not be kept in small cages where it is forced to be inactive since this will cause severe digestive problems for the bird. Emus should instead be kept in large open pens where they can graze. Most farmers also feed their Emu birds grain.