Curled/bent/distorted toe on 3 year old emu

[Ebarnes-21]

"So in this photo, they may be 99% physically mature, but they are still sitting in a cosy clump, like chicks."

Mine have only recently (in the last 12 months?) stopped sleeping as a clutch (except Lady who separated even 2 years ago)

Now they sleep as pairs, generally, but they are shifting all the time!

"And around them is the hustle and bustle of mature -- indeed serious battle-hardened females like Greedy -- engaged in what the owners of captive emus really don't dig, the months-long yearly Darwinian conflict for mates and territory."

I really need to keep track of every Emu who makes aggressive moves toward another ... and those who don't.

Lady - definately stroppy.
Rhagar - very meek.

I've seen passing swipes with claws taken by one emu to another, so far, the receiver of this aggression has been 100% focused on getting away from the attack.

Petty squabbles happen over food, mostly characterised by a sudden hiss, high stepping upright stance, loud pecks which may connect but more likely just "CRACK" in the air, and attempts to stomp the other emu.

They focus on staying away from each other. Right now I could find Egg and Danny down the mid to northern river flats, Rhagar at the other end (which means he is 150 metres away, around a corner on the other side of a small hill), Lady is up the top paddocks which is 400 metres away well uphill. Leg was in the same end as Rhagar ... but he's now reach the drive alongside Lady. This morning he must have been in the Chook paddock, which borders the river flats on our side, and he pushed through a gate left unlatched for the goats in order to get to the driveway.

The trough provided is at this end, in Rhagar's area, and all Emu in the river flat come up to it every so often.

 

[Ebarnes-21]

Your birds clearly have some sense of emooo conflict. O k a y . . .

But it's only about a smidgeon of space. I think they'd be at a loss for a season as they tried to figure out the relationship between conflict and territory and mating.

We strongly suspect that newly-formed breeding-pairs cover very large distances -- and why they do that is a topic for another day. The point is that by about early autumn, they decide that THIS is where they want to make a stand. So your birds would have to evolve from squabbles over a patch of ground or a handful of food to systematically undertaking, over several months, to defeat any and all comers.

I kid you not, e-Barnes, the conflicts rage week in week out as the aspiring pair (mostly the female . . . ) tries to gain ascendancy.

Yes I knew we'd see them fight when they started sorting their territories ... not really looking forward to that .... hoping they don't injure themselves too much, we have to pick up the pieces, veterinarially speaking.

I think Lady owns the top paddock, it's her signature territory. Last year she chased Danny out over the fence into the neighbour's, just once ... other than that we have never had an escape, they seem to have fixated on our place as their range, fortunately.

Strangely after that Danny seemed to move in to the top paddock with Lady for a while, and if you moved one or both out, they'd both be back in the same paddock within a short time.

It appears Lady is single right now, as she has gone up there, and not taken anyone with her.

 

[Ebarnes-21]

OK that's quite large. I haven't seen any vocal sacs yet, I'm pretty confident to say.

But I'm sure I'll see some pairs shifting around the farm soon ... fences are negotiable to my Emu so I think that will facilitate the territory seeking behaviour.

They sort of accept an 'indication' of which half of the farm they'll stay on, ie, I can move them to another paddock, and they will mostly only cross 1 fence to juggle into their preferred territory for that area.

Lady is the exception, she just up and moved from the river flats to the top paddocks a few days ago, all by herself. That's 2-3 fences, including one recently 'fixed' gate ... depending on how she did it.

 

[Ebarnes-21]

Here is Egg in the foreground, and Rhagar in the back.
(the fence is not a 'real' one, it is only dividing a raceway in the same paddock).

At this time (about a month ago) they were all 5 together in the chook paddock, living happily spread out over the one hectare or so paddock, because of the delicious abundance of plantain seed heads, which they peck off whole.

That makes for some interesting emu droppings, comprised of plantain seed suspended in psyllium husk gelly ... the plantain seed grows out of the Emu droppings. Emu digestive systems seem to be very fast. Many seeds survive.

They love our NZ totara's, which have thousands of tiny berries in late summer. We had a super mast year the year before last and they were virtually living off the totaras!
The Emu droppings then contain 50% totara seeds.
I can only imagine that the Moa must have done the same, and created the large fused multi-trunk ancient totoras we still see some of around - the younger trees are all single trunks, or twos and threes.

 

[Ebarnes-21]

This is Rhagar again ... alone in the chook paddock just the other day.

 

[Ebarnes-21]

Finally we have Egg, only a day or two ago, down on the river flats. Danny is barely visible in the background behind the goat.

I think Egg still looks a bit like a youngster. But he/she has been getting a bit stroppy ... and has been the recipient of a kick recently, as evidenced by the tiny missing clump of feathers on the lower thigh.

I'm on a mission to get up-to-date photos of them all.

 

[briefvisit]

'The Emu droppings then contain 50% totara seeds.
I can only imagine that the Moa must have done the same, and created the large fused multi-trunk ancient totoras we still see some of around . . . '

Oh, this is interesting! I've seen a photo of a cassowary dropping from which several seedlings were growing. I've seen emu droppings here with perfect little fields of wheat germinating: just the right combination of poop and wet/dry and gobbled-up wheat and sunshine.

SE

 

[briefvisit]

'I really need to keep track of every Emu who makes aggressive moves toward another ... and those who don't.'

As you have a deal of space, I'd be interested to hear a report on inter-territorial behaviour. For example:
the female of a breeding-pair has her brekkie. Then she does a 'boundary check,' physically moving once or twice around the whole perimeter of her territory. Then she might adopt the 'swan-neck posture,' sorta half hunkered down

[Got the chicks raging past the front of the house as I'm typing.]

then emits six or eight 'Foomphs' from her vocal sac -- that's inter-territorial. But maybe emus like yours, with no other females nearby, simply don't do it?

SE