# Australia - The only country that eats its coat of arms? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2004, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181 "2004-02-08T22:26:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![leechbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@leechbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leechbabe)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2004, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/1 "2004-02-08T22:26:14Z")
I was listening to an ad on the radio this morning and it stated that “Australia was the only country that ate its coat of arms”. [Australian Coat of Arms](http://www.pm.gov.au/aus_in_focus/nat_symbols/coatofarms.html) I assume they were referring to the emu and kangaroo on the coat of arms. Is this correct? Is Australia the only country that eats the animals represented on its coat of arms? ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/2 "2004-02-08T22:32:47Z")
I’d be interested in knowing what the hell that station was advertising 😃 Anyway, I do know that Canadians wear theirs sometimes (the beaver). Now, if you’ll excuse me, my eagle egg omelet is ready. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2004, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/3 "2004-02-08T22:35:34Z")
I’m quite partial to lion steak (England) the French ‘coq’ and coq au vin spring to mind. ---
**Author:** ![CheekyMonkey613](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e480ec/32.png) [@CheekyMonkey613](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheekyMonkey613)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/4 "2004-02-08T22:54:01Z")
> [@Mehitabel](#): > > Anyway, I do know that Canadians wear theirs sometimes (the beaver). The [Canadian Coat Of Arms](http://www.mpcc-cppm.gc.ca/images/general/big_arms.gif) does not feature a beaver. We’ve got a few lions; we’ve got a unicorn. No beaver. The beaver was adopted as the national symbol in 1975. Since then, we’ve adopted the maple tree in 1996 as well as the Canadian horse in 2002. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/5 "2004-02-08T22:59:18Z")
\ **Author:** ![leechbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@leechbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leechbabe)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2004, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/6 "2004-02-08T23:00:23Z") > [@Mehitabel](#): > > I’d be interested in knowing what the hell that station was advertising 😃 Something about how wonderful it is to be Australia (and eat our coat of arms). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2004, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/7 "2004-02-08T23:50:53Z")
Well, they certainly eat beef in Andorra, Botswana, Iceland, Romania, Uruguay and Niger, and there are bulls on all their coats of arms. They eat chicken in Kenya too, and there’s a cockerel on theirs. Maybe they eat marlin in the Bahamas and the Seychelles, antelope in Uganda, Namibia and Zimbabwe, crocodile in Lesotho, and mountain goat in Chad? France doesn’t have an official CoA. I know they eat springbok in South Africa, but that doesn’t appear on their CoA any more either. They can’t eat dodo in Mauritius because they’re all gone, but perhaps they weren’t hunted for food after all. I’d be prepared to give unicorn a try – what’s the betting it tastes like chicken? ---
**Author:** ![leechbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@leechbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leechbabe)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2004, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/8 "2004-02-08T23:53:43Z")
> [@everton](#): > > I’d be prepared to give unicorn a try – what’s the betting it tastes like chicken? I dunno, wouldn’t Unicorn be a red meat? Probably taste more like Zebra. Wonder what sort of wine goes best with Unicorn? Thank-you for answering my question **everton**. Think I might have to email the radio station and let them know they were wrong. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2004, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/9 "2004-02-09T00:04:27Z")
You’re welcome. I always think that if they served you fried Martian they’d tell you it was going to taste like chicken. Ostrich tastes like beef though, so who knows? ---
**Author:** ![leechbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@leechbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leechbabe)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2004, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/10 "2004-02-09T10:33:51Z")
One of the breakfast show hosts emailed me back about the coat of arms thing 🙂 Nice to see that sometimes people care about fighting ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![mecaenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@mecaenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mecaenas)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2004, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/11 "2004-02-09T12:57:59Z")
Not really a GQ response, but just out of interest for anyone who hasn’t tried it yet… from the point of view of an Aussie who has eaten both Emu and Kangaroo meat - Emu can be quite tough and stringy, not a particularly nice meat, on the other hand Kangaroo is quite tasty. Mecaenas Apex Predator ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2004, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/12 "2004-02-09T13:16:54Z")
Just for the record, what y’all are talking about are, in general, the critters that are depicted holding up the shield, which are referred to as supporters, the shield being an escutcheon, and the whole depiction, with shield, crest, supporters, motto, and miscellaneous other details, is an accomplishment (the objective name of the collection of heraldic gadgetry, not an abstract-noun critique of the abilities of the owner thereof). Though it’s getting downright pedantic to insist on the distinction any more, a “coat of arms” is just what it sounds like – the _tabard_, an item of overwear, sleeveless, the design of which depicts one’s _blazon_ (the official legal design of the escutcheon) – or, more usually, the blazon of the person employing those who wear the tabards. It’s quite possible to have animals on the escutcheon proper, e.g., both England and Scotland use lions, the English arms having three lions _passant gardant_ (walking sideways and looking at the person observing the shield), while the Scottish lion is _rampant_ (rearing up). But while the pre-1603 English shield was supported by lions, the Scottish shield was supported by unicorns, and when Great Britain was formed as a political entity, the two shields were “quartered” (draw a shield and line in a cross-pattern, place one set of arms in positions 1 and 4, and the other in positions 2 and 3 on it), and one supporter from each set was used. (This omits the display of the French “arms in pretence” and the use of the Irish harp since 1800, for simplicity’s sake.) To the extent that the unicorn represented anything more than purely imagination, it appears to have been a rare sport among aurochs, in which the horn cores merged, and the resultant male displayed a single horn and was powerfully but slenderly built (apparently the result of the merged horn cores’ pressure on the fetal brain and pituitary gland) and exhibited a rather take-charge air when full grown. It was not, however, a mutation which bred true, but a rare congenital condition. So, for what it’s worth, a unicorn would taste like beef. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/13 "2004-02-09T17:08:48Z")
> [@mecaenas](#): > > Not really a GQ response, but just out of interest for anyone who hasn’t tried it yet… from the point of view of an Aussie who has eaten both Emu and Kangaroo meat - Emu can be quite tough and stringy, not a particularly nice meat, on the other hand Kangaroo is quite tasty. Back in my undergrad days, there was a big effort to promote the exotic meat market and for a while you could easily get emu meat at large supermarkets. The whole thing was a bit of a failure and people would seldom buy it. That meant that emu was often on sale and quite affordable. I don’t remember it as particularly tough. It was quite nice, actually. I suppose it might be like duck: food of the gods if done right, but a badly cooked magret can leave you chewing for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Basandre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@Basandre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Basandre)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/14 "2004-02-09T19:45:59Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > To the extent that the unicorn represented anything more than purely imagination, it appears to have been a rare sport among aurochs, in which the horn cores merged, and the resultant male displayed a single horn and was powerfully but slenderly built (apparently the result of the merged horn cores’ pressure on the fetal brain and pituitary gland) and exhibited a rather take-charge air when full grown. It was not, however, a mutation which bred true, but a rare congenital condition. So, for what it’s worth, a unicorn would taste like beef. I don’t believe I’m doing this, but do you have a cite for that? I’d really like to read more about this. Did I just ask Polycarp for a cite? Eep! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/15 "2004-02-09T20:17:16Z")
> [@Basandre](#): > > I don’t believe I’m doing this, but do you have a cite for that? I’d really like to read more about this. > > Did I just ask Polycarp for a cite? Eep! I got it out of one of those suspend-your-disbelief cryptozoology books, and don’t recall which one, but remember the details because I was pleased to know that the unicorn concept had at least a small toehold in zoological reality. The author seemed to be sufficiently skeptical to distinguish between pure legend, theorizing on old documents, and practical data, so I gave it a bit more credence than I would the latest Bigfoot siting – he did, as I recall, cite specifics such as the cloven hooves and data in old annals on the birth of unicorns to cattle in Poland and such that would give some credence to what he was sayig. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2004, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/16 "2004-02-09T21:52:39Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > …the whole depiction, with shield, crest, supporters, motto, and miscellaneous other details, is an accomplishment… Achievement. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2004, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-the-only-country-that-eats-its-coat-of-arms/228181/17 "2004-02-09T22:23:46Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I got it out of one of those suspend-your-disbelief cryptozoology books, and don’t recall which one, but remember the details because I was pleased to know that the unicorn concept had at least a small toehold in zoological reality. The author seemed to be sufficiently skeptical to distinguish between pure legend, theorizing on old documents, and practical data, so I gave it a bit more credence than I would the latest Bigfoot siting – he did, as I recall, cite specifics such as the cloven hooves and data in old annals on the birth of unicorns to cattle in Poland and such that would give some credence to what he was sayig. While it’s possible that the biblical “unicorn” was based on a mutant aurochs, it’s more generally believed that the legend is based on early Greek accounts of the Indian Rhinoceros, most notably by Ctesias. For some examples: [http://12.1911encyclopedia.org/U/UN/UNICORN.htm](http://12.1911encyclopedia.org/U/UN/UNICORN.htm)