- Jun 8, 2010
- 155
- 7
- 99
The secondary preoccupation of my birds after eating is glukking and fumphing and feather-flaring and chasing one another endlessly around the house-clearing. Number One (bottom of the pecking-order) trots jauntily ahead of Felicity (number two) for hundreds of metres, around and around the house.
But behold what happens when Foreign Emus come!!
Background: fig season has begun. There are two enormous fig trees rise next to the gums behind the house. I think there are perhaps three or four mobs of a half a dozen emus that live principally on this thousand acres, and they may have chicks. I think there are a dozen or more chicks and adolescents at present.
So, it seems my birds know when the foreign emus are approaching. [Any opinions here?] Suddenly, it's Solidarity City! My emus are in perfect co-ordination against the interlopers, who 'drift' up through the gums (where I can't seem them 'til they emerge) or up a track between the gums (where I can see them). They don't battle. It's more a long and slow ballet of movement and display: a big foreign bird 'puffs up' and advances. My birds (principally Greedy, the alpha bird, and the biggest by some kilos) will puff up in return. [Look up the expressions 'greater and lesser panoply,' readers.] There may be a feint or two, but the foreign emus are much at the disadvantage because my birds are between them and the figs.
I suspect that the foreign emus make random excursions to the edge of their territory, which is the house-clearing. If my emus are away being wild emus, the foreign emus slip in and score a feed.
There's another dynamic, though: sometimes, although there is low-level fussing, my emus allow the foreign emus to eat the figs any opinions? Could it be that the emus' behaviour is similar to humans? that is, that the emus recognise biological kin, and allow them to browse? (Remember that my birds are related to some number of these birds. My emus' parents occasionally visit, and get wheat.) The distinction is clear: sometimes foreign emus get to browse; sometimes they are confronted and peremptorily repulsed, indeed, 'escorted' several hundred metres through the scrub.
Supreme Emu
But behold what happens when Foreign Emus come!!
Background: fig season has begun. There are two enormous fig trees rise next to the gums behind the house. I think there are perhaps three or four mobs of a half a dozen emus that live principally on this thousand acres, and they may have chicks. I think there are a dozen or more chicks and adolescents at present.
So, it seems my birds know when the foreign emus are approaching. [Any opinions here?] Suddenly, it's Solidarity City! My emus are in perfect co-ordination against the interlopers, who 'drift' up through the gums (where I can't seem them 'til they emerge) or up a track between the gums (where I can see them). They don't battle. It's more a long and slow ballet of movement and display: a big foreign bird 'puffs up' and advances. My birds (principally Greedy, the alpha bird, and the biggest by some kilos) will puff up in return. [Look up the expressions 'greater and lesser panoply,' readers.] There may be a feint or two, but the foreign emus are much at the disadvantage because my birds are between them and the figs.
I suspect that the foreign emus make random excursions to the edge of their territory, which is the house-clearing. If my emus are away being wild emus, the foreign emus slip in and score a feed.
There's another dynamic, though: sometimes, although there is low-level fussing, my emus allow the foreign emus to eat the figs any opinions? Could it be that the emus' behaviour is similar to humans? that is, that the emus recognise biological kin, and allow them to browse? (Remember that my birds are related to some number of these birds. My emus' parents occasionally visit, and get wheat.) The distinction is clear: sometimes foreign emus get to browse; sometimes they are confronted and peremptorily repulsed, indeed, 'escorted' several hundred metres through the scrub.
Supreme Emu
