Eight Foot off the Ground Emus

[Supreme Emu]

There's been interesting alph-emu stuff going on here. In short, my emus and their parents had an odd re-alpha-ising of the pecking order. I happened to be standing about . . . ohh . . . ten or twelve feet away when Greedy and Felicity had it out (over afternoon wheat). It was THE most aggressive fight I've yet seen. Greedy's head was, I'd say, 'xackly eight feet of the ground when he kicked Felicity. Usually, you know, they do the run-towards-each-other-break-away-at-last-moment thing – not this time!! They both went straight up, every feather fluffed, and delivered each other cracking double kicks in mid air. I stood with my mouth open.


Supreme Emu

 

[Jacklynn]

Holy emu ! That would be quite the site :O

They won't seriously injure each other will they ? :O ?

 

[chickenzoo]

They can put deep cuts in each other. It's amazing how quick they heal up. My one Emu Edward has been nasty to all the other Emu, provoking them to fight over the fence. My female caught Edward in the neck with a claw that resulted in very deep and long cuts in the neck seeing muscle underneath. I cleaned it out and sprayed it with Blue kote. Healed up in 2 weeks. I have seen 1/2 inch cuts in their backs from each other... but mostly they bite each others necks, ripping out feathers and stomp at each other... but on occasion they have almost gone over the six foot corral panels at each other.
They have never shown any aggression towards me or people however.

 

[Supreme Emu]

The bird at the bottom of the pecking-order here, Emu Hugger, is Number One. (Don't ask.) HE sometimes forgets that I'm Wheat Guy, and rushes at me. The first times she did it, it was scary, but I've figured out that she figures out that I'm not an emu, and she desists.

I am interested in your detail of injuries. I've been wondering exactly what the Upper Limit is. Clearly, the birds could do serious damage. So, mine have not yet reached maximum aggression.

(I mentioned somewhere else that I'd rather have a run-in with an hydraulic ice-pick than Eric the Emu. He'd kill you.)

Supreme Emu

 

[chickenzoo]

Yes, it's a good thing that most Emu are docile natured towards people... or it would be Jurassic Park... hehe I'm sure they could kill each other if they kept at it, but most of the time it is more displaying then actual aggression... but if one continues to push it's limits, the higher Emu will put a hurting on it. It can be quite scarey being around them when they start fighting... all that hissing and stomping, chest butting and biting necks and feathers. If any of the others go after Jazzy, he runs and hides behind me.... hehe

 

[foulman007]

Never seen anything like that from my birds but they were all raised together. they stay in their 3 foot high border fence never stepped over once. the biggest alpha fight i have seen is a bit of fluffing strutting and a few pecks at one onother. The most abuse between them so far has been between saturn and neptune during mating resulting in some feathers plucked out...maybe I am very lucky or just spoil them too much?

 

[Supreme Emu]

Hi, Foulman. It's detail like this that makes BYC interesting for me. As I've said before, I MUST be seeing things that emus-as-pet owners can't see. (Mine are tame, not pets.) I, for example, have not seen an emu egg since I was six. I've never seen a nest or mating or a bunch of other stuff.

However, as the house-clearing here is quite literally an interface with the wild population – to whom my birds are related – I get to see pecking-order determination as it happens, over months: my birds' parent(s) brought them here as chicks, and shared food with them. A year later, the parents were driving the adolescent chicks off the food. Then there was the fateful day on which my emus WHOOPED their parent, and claimed the house-clearing as their own.

Interestingly, it seems emu hugger's birds have engaged in worse fighting than mine, but I've only been in the game a little over two years.

Supreme Emu

 

[chickenzoo]

I first noticed fighting between my 2 males that grew up together. I only had them at the time, and one day they just decided they couldn't stand the site of each other.. and Jazzy is very docile. I had to separate them for a time, but they still fought through the fence. Then I got a female and all was right with the Emu world, as Jazzy has no interest in her but Merlin fell in love. Then I acquired 2 others, supposedly a pair (just found out 2 males)..... Emma (now ED) was a fraidy cat at first, then all heck broke out and she/he began beating up all the emu, even Dudley, who she/he grew up with. Ed would just go at them through the fence until someone fought with him, and beat him up... I had to separate him... He has always been pacy, trys to jump everything, and just a pain in the butt... hehe Where Dudley is happy to walk around and be an Emu. Strange....