The Great Emu War was the first and perhaps only inter-species war of the 20th century. In 1932, there was great public concern over the number of emus said to be running amok and often destroying farmer's crops in the Campion district of Western Australia.
The attempts to curb the population of emus (which are large, flightless, rather ridiculous looking birds indigenous to Australia) involved soldiers armed with machine guns.
In the soldier's first attempts, around 50 emus were killed and they suffered no casualties. In their second attempt, 986 birds were killed with 9,860 rounds and 2,500 birds were wounded and died as a result of their injuries.
By December of that year, the Emu War had reached Great Britain where some people sided with the soldiers and farmers, while others sided with the emus. Conservationists protested the initiative as "extermination of the rare emu."