A hotel in Australia had to ban a pair of 6-foot emus for overstepping their guest privileges
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Melissa Wiley
Aug 1, 2020, 00:05 IST
The Yaraka Hotel, pictured in September 2010, is visited frequently by two local emus.Auscape/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Yaraka Hotel & Pub in Queensland, Australia, has banned two long-time hotel visitors for "bad behavior." The guests are two local emus named Kevin and Carol.
Last week, Kevin and Carol learned to walk up the stairs.
Yaraka co-owners Gerry and Chris Gimblett have installed an emu barrier to remind Kevin and Carol that they're still welcome — just not inside the hotel.
Emus, endemic to Australia, are the world's second-largest bird and average 5.7 feet tall, according to Smithsonian's National Zoo.
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In the tiny 20-person town of Yaraka in the Australian Outback, everyone knows each other — including two resident emus named Kevin and Carol.
Kevin and Carol have become beloved visitors of the four-bedroom Yaraka Hotel & Pub, meandering over to the hotel's porch to greet guests like Queensland Senator James McGrath.
Last week, however, they overstepped their boundaries.
A post shared by Senator James McGrath (@senatormcgrath) on Jul 26, 2020 at 3:45pm PDT
The siblings have now figured out how to walk up stairs, the Brisbane Times reported.
To keep the pair in check, co-owners Gerry and Chris Gimblett posted a sign at the top of the stairs that reads "Emus have been banned from this establishment for bad behavior."
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"We put the sign up, but we're not quite sure whether they're able to read or not. So, we've had to put a bar across there, as well," Gerry told 10 News First Queensland.
Though the community is fond of Kevin and Carol, "you don't want to get between an emu and food," she told CNN Travel.
"They've got very sharp beaks and they're a bit like a vacuum cleaner where food is concerned," she added.
A post shared by Senator James McGrath (@senatormcgrath) on Jul 26, 2020 at 2:56am PDT
This isn't the first time Kevin and Carol have thought of themselves more as hotel guests than visitors.
Last year, they took the liberty of exploring the bar. "We had a time where we had Carol behind the bar and Kevin on the other side, we think he was trying to order a longneck," Gerry told 10 News First Queensland, adding that the puns ran rampant.
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Since the ban, Kevin and Carol appear to be on their best behavior and are soaking up the media attention.
"The country is needing this with our COVID crises," a Melbourne resident wrote in a comment on the hotel's Facebook page.
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