Terrifying moment a driver nearly smashes into emu as it brazenly dashes across a highway in the Outback
- An emu has had a close encounter with a vehicle on a highway in South Australia
- The car is seen travelling at high speed before an emu darts across the road
- Dash cam vision shows the bird seconds away from colliding with the vehicle
An emu has had a very narrow escape with a car after it brazenly dashes across a highway in an Australian coastal town.
Footage uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday shows the close call between an emu and a vehicle travelling on a long strip of road in Victor Harbor in South Australia.
Travelling at high speed behind a motorcycle, the area appears isolated and quiet before an emu darts out of nearby shrubs.
Dash cam vision captures the moment an emu had close call with oncoming traffic after darting across a highway in Victor Harbor in South Australia (pictured)
In blink-and-you'll-miss-it dash cam vision, the emu is seen only moments away from colliding with the vehicle and another oncoming truck during the mad dash.
Undeterred by the potential collision, the driver continues on the freeway without a second thought.
Emus can run at speeds of up to 50 km/hr and are the second largest bird, behind the Ostrich - growing up to two metres tall.
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Earlier in the year a study uncovered the key behavioural patterns of the emu, one of Australia's most iconic animals.
They found that climate is the most influential factor over where emus live, and that the birds are less bothered by things like habitat and urbanisation.
It turns out that emus like rainfall across most of the year, but are put off by heavy rainfall in summer.
The emu is now found in healthy numbers across most of Australia, bar the uppermost parts of the Northern Territory, but in smaller numbers in the east.
The flightless bird was only seconds away from smashing into the vehicle during its daring dash
