Mating-Season in Australia

[Tame Emu Guy]

Supreme Emu is (almost) the last emu. Well, a two-year-old, whom I think is Orphan Emu, is still drifting about, and a couple of others have passed by; but Mr. and Mrs. Eric have left. (I haven’t seen a clutch of chicks for months.)

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Both Greedy the Emu and her consort, Boy Emu, have just turned up at the farmhouse. I’m not sure if there is some dynamic at play here, but the two siblings have not been here together for a year and a half: Felicity go; Greedy come. Greedy go; Felicity come. They are now enjoying a triple ration of wheat in the sunshine. I do think that Greedy is the more dynamic (Felicity is still a spinster), and is more likely to just ‘stop in’ for a visit in the greater course of Emu Life.

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Patience, readers. Two things happening here. Firstly, you may recall that I said two emus stayed behind when the others left. Well, I've just worked out that those two are the third and fourth emus in Greedy the Emu's flock. Is it just coincidence? or have they rendevoused here? So, Greedy and Boy Emu are here now, out the back, eating wheat with Consort Number Two. . Orphan emu is not far away.

Secondly, if there photos attached, it's a technological triumph for me, and footage will follow. [Oh, wow, it worked. After two years, photos from the farmhouse; but text must remain primary, for our children's sake . . . ]

These birds are (let's get into the habit of providing technical detail) adult female rothschildis. The one in the garden is Felicity. The one in the carport is his clutch-mate, Greedy, a young but mature Alpha bird, and the bird behind Greedy is her consort, Boy Emu. (They arrived this afternoon.)

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Readers,

I rented a farmhouse in the bush. An emu came every morning to eat fallen fruit. Four years later, his daughter Greedy will eat from your hand. This is The Fig Tree. They don’t live with me. I live with them.

[And here in brackets, a word to the wise, boys and girls: if we have a my-eemoo-can-whup-yo-eemoo contest, don't bet against Greedy! Her dad Eric was the Alpha bird for miles around – the house-clearing is Prime Territory – until grain-fed Greedy reached maturity, and WHUPPED him publicly. I saw it happen from about five feet away.]

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

I thought I might have been wrong about Greedy Emu’s ‘flock’ rendezvousing here. Greedy and Boy Emu have been in and around the house-clearing since they turned up – two good feeds a day. But I didn’t see either the second consort or Orphan Emu for days. This morning, though, they passed through as a group. I have not seen a single other emu in the vicinity for days.
I don’t know that the second consort is indeed a male. It must be that Boy Emu is: ‘he’ has been a unit with Greedy for more than a year now – that is, this is their second mating-season together. However, I think it’s a reasonable guess that Boy Emu and the second consort are both males.
Perhaps the dynamic is this: Felicity is a ‘here emu’; but has left her base to seek a mate with emu flocks in the district. She must be known to them: she was away for seven months last year.
[I know that my emus have ‘maps’ of quite large territories in their memories. My three, for example, have a map of eleven square miles, which includes coming in and out the front gate of the property. I suspect that it’s much much larger than that. I don’t think, for example, that Felicity never travelled more than a couple of miles away during the seven months she was away. Moreover, if she travelled with another flock, then the map of their territory was added to her map. I don’t think a ‘basic territory’ map of sixty or eighty square miles is at all unlikely, to which we add –from articles on the Net – the assumption that flocks will travel a hundred miles to source food and water. Who thinks those travelling groups return to their home territories to breed?]
Greedy is also a ‘here emu’; but she is an Alpha bird, has accreted a flock, including two potential mates; and can and will hold the house-clearing against all comers (which doesn’t mean that she won’t head off to flock up elsewhere. I expect her to.). This is her second mating-season as an adult. Will Boy Emu or the second consort end up sitting on eggs in this vicinity?
I hesitated about posting the following, but knowledge is power: in four years, Eric and Mrs Eric have produced only three chicks that I know of. Those chicks – only two ‘extant’ – haven’t produced any chicks of their own . . . that I know about. I’m not sure that I’m sure that Number One is alive. Greedy suffered an injury as a chick, and very very nearly died – that is, killed by her fellows. I managed to sequester her and feed her. A bird will kill a sibling immediately it appears injured.
Walking in the bush recently, I found the skull and neck vertebrae of a chick on top of a log in the bush – obviously pulled down and killed by a fox. In the old days, it would have been a dingo. My neighbour, a knowledgeable and experienced man, says that eagles out here have snatched off the ground and flown away with piglets! This makes sense in respect of the claim that chicks zig-zag as they flee. An eagle that big – formally measured up to 8’ 2” wingspan – would have a hard time manoeuvring close to the ground.
Yesterday, I found an emu skeleton. The thigh bone was broken – that is, smashed. The skeleton was a hundred yards from the highway. An ugly ugly way to die!

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Okay . . . I don’t understand . . .


Greedy is here. Three wild birds are here. Boy Emu is not here. I don’t understand – but with an hour’s effort, including fifteen minutes lying on the wet ground, I got this picture, from about eight feet. Greedy’s on the left, and the wild bird is on the right. It’s not a picnic-area-sort-of-tame bird. It’s wild.
The three wild birds are startlingly similar. Male or female? I don’t know – I think maybe young males.

 

[foulman007]

Very interesting interactions indeed.
One of my males left the "flock" to sit on his eggs. He has defended what he considers his area very aggressively. Now his chicks are gone. The other male and the female will not let him return to the original flock. They will chase him back every time he approaches them.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

No change: Greedy and Boy Emu are here. One emu has passed through the house-clearing. (I think it was Greedy’s second consort.) I did see a flock of ten birds about a half a mile from the house.
I hear a female gluk-gluk-glukking at night close by. It must be Greedy . . . but who is she glukking to? Boy Emu is sitting right beside her.

SE

 

[kathyinmo]

I love reading this.......... your journal.

 

[Farmerboy16]

X2!
Its very interesting reading about life in the Down Under.