Mating-Season in Australia

[RingedTeal]

. but coming down the drive here at my place, I saw this – you tell me: a bird was coming up the drive. It was Greedy. I said hello. We walked together down past the aisle where B.E. is. Greedy turned back. I kept walking, wondering if she was up to something. Then she raised her ruff, and advanced into B.E.’s aisle (I think, or very close to it); and Felicity came bolting out. So, what was that about? Felicity is still top dog (though her days are numbered. Greedy ate heartily this evening), so it’s significant that Greedy was prepared, in her weakened state, to confront Felicity.

Supreme Emu

I don't have any Emus but it seems to me like maybe Greedy felt Felicity was a threat to her and B.e.'s nest.But like I said I don't have any Emu's

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

[Been away. At the doc's.]

Hi, M.L.!
Yup. Greedy was defending the nest.

I was already wondering at that point if G. was going to show any further interest in B.E. at all. She sure hadn’t up to that point!

Let me add two details:

First, there’s a great joke going on here. Y’all know that I ‘got’ these emus accidentally. I spent a good deal of time on the Net trying to find anyone who was interested in emus. I expected to find Australians who had and loved emus.

Nuh! Nix. Nada. Not a one!!!

Instead . . . I wound up in this lovely community of birds-lovers in the U.S. People who’ve never seen a wild emu . . . but are bird fanciers. People who are coming, so to speak, from the ‘bird side’ of it all, not from the ‘Australian with pet native life-form’ side of it. My point here is that I know absolutely nothing about birds. So, it’s just lovely having any bird fancier observing, even if they aren’t a bird fancier with emus. That’s the first thing. I wasn’t kidding when I said that all advice is welcome.

Secondly, I‘ve been involved for a couple of years in a study of some stuff from ‘evolutionary psychology’ (from a political perspective. Details upon request.). Part of that is the logic of human females whereby they are choosier than human males about who they share their DNA with: raising a child – in our species the raising comes with the bearing – is the major ‘life investment.’ Most birds are the same. It’s the mommy bird who raises the chicks. So, how weird is it that I inherit some emus – who do all this ‘xackly back to front – in the middle of this study?

‘Kay, those are the two things. So, I was already wondering about this ‘any further interest thing’ before I posted the observation: does the female just lay the eggs on the ground and walk away? Having no further interest? That seemed to be pretty much the case at that point. I hadn’t observed anything at all in Greedy that reflected the slightest remaining interest in B.E.

But just a couple of days, I saw G. stand for a second and peer up B.E.’s aisle with a sort of ‘Did-I-leave-the-iron-on? look on her face.

So that’s where we are at this second: yup, I agree with you that Greedy was protecting her nest – but she sure doesn’t go out of her way to do so.

Why do you think Felicity was sticky-beaking?

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Interview with Ken
​

I’ve mentioned Ken. He grew up in this house. Knows the district impressively well. We went out bush this afternoon, and he was kind enough to answer questions for me:

One: ‘emu-berry bush’: well, it’s a bush. It bears berries. Emus love them. It bears in Summer. There certainly are plenty of these bushes in the bush. He reckons that people made jam from them in the past.

Two: ‘Zamia palm’: he showed me one. I recognised it: it has a somewhat pineapple-like seed cluster on top in the middle when it bears. Emus love them. Also common in the bush down here.

Three: ‘snottygobble trees’: don’t laugh, U.S. readers. We do indeed have a tree called a ‘snottygobble,’ which Ken assures me has a seed in a pod filled with . . . what looks like snot, and various creatures love them, gobble them up. Hence, ‘snottygobble.’ He reckons emus like these also.

Four: ‘dwarf-berry bush’: the seed tastes like a plum. Emus like them.

Five: he reckons that emus will, in very hot weather, drink a fair bit of water; but we both broke down laughing trying to translate how-many-sips-equals litres gallons teaspoons tablespoons. Okay, emus drink a good deal in hot weather . . . but probably not five gallons. Reckons a flock might move from one waterhole to another in a day, or several days, and drink up big time each time they get a chance.

Six: he laughed outright when I told him about the ‘emus are solitary birds’ claim. ‘Nah,’ he said, ‘emus flock: they’re birds’ – ya gotta admit: his logic’s good.

Seven: now, I note here that Ken has a keen interest in What The Bush Was Like in The Old Days. Remember I said it is subject of conversation? Well, when I started asking him about ‘prehistoric emus,’ he understood right away. Yes, he reckons, the fences that now exist certainly cramp an emu’s style. Conversely, yup, they will move ten or so miles to graze on grass like that at Oudman’s. Overall, though, he expressed it thus: in a good season, there’s plenty of tucker, so an emu flock doesn’t need to go far, so it doesn’t go far. However, if the next season is poor, that same flock will travel as far as necessary to source food. Finally, if you have a really bad year, a drought year, they’ll travel hundreds of miles.

Ken and Supreme Emu

 

[chickenzoo]

Funny plant names.....hehe....but makes sense. Wish some plants would go by easy names instead of these scientific names that are hard to remember.
I had a new experience with Merlin the other day. He always comes at feeding time, they have a feeder to eat from at leisure .....but he never misses stealing food from the horses, llama and alpaca. He didn't come to eat the other night...neither did his young son Zip. So I took the golf cart out in the dark, shining the pasture and woods to see where the heck they were. Out of the dark comes Zip, all excited and jumpy. He must have been exploring and stayed out late. A little later I found Merlin, looking rather POed. He kept looking back at Zip. I gather Merlin wanted to leave ....but not without Zip. He kept going to the open gate that leads to the smaller night pasture, but not going in. Zip refused to go, like a spoiled teenager. I lead Merlin with the flashlight and my hand on his back. All was good until the light hit a large tree stump that kind of looked like a laying brown animal. Merlin's feathers raised from butt to head, I've never seen him ruffed up so! The feathers were almost straight up....from butt to head...he looked like a walking bottlebrush....lol. He hissed, turned tail and ran.....leaving me to defend myself alone.....thanks Merlin, you big scaredy cat.... :/

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

‘Kay, I was away on Friday and Saturday, so no report. Today, only Greedy was here -- ??

Tonight, though, I can hear a female booming quite near to the house; but it’s an odd boom: small – and nineteen in a string. I'm pretty sure it's neither G. nor F., and I haven't ever ever heard a foreign female call so close to the house at night. It's intriguing. Let’s see what birds are here in the morning.


There's a lot of interest in your story, E.H. I had an idea that emus didn't move much at night -- but I'm really intrigued by the feeder. You write, 'to eat from at leisure.'

What? they can eat all day? Gee, if you gave Greedy and Felicity such a feeder, they'd end up like the dead-and-gone-belly-up goldfish in the story about what happens if you accidentally put too much food in the goldfish bowl.

Also -- in all seriousness -- think about how much time wild birds spend foraging. If a pet emu can get a bellyful of highly nutiritious food in ten minutes, what does it do for the rest of the day? I reckon my birds spend at least six hours a day grazing.

Supreme Emu

 

[chickenzoo]

Lol..... They could if it was different than there "normal" food. They get bored with their regular food and trot off to eat seeds and acorns.....grasses and the like in the pasture and woods. Unlike your emu, ours know that food is always available.... So there is no need to gobble it up at once..... But....If I feed them something new, than they would eat until they rolled over from fullness. Lol. They aren't very active at night, but the younger ones seem to be more adventurous at times and stay out later. My older ones have a favorite spot, normally near a corner with bushes to their back. They hanker down for the night there... But if something is going on they may get up to have a look see.

 

[Raptor65]

Mating dynamics in Emus is definitely an interesting subject. From your writings I'd hypothesize that a female stakes out a territory, then booms to attract males to the area. The males then compete until one dominant male is left, who in turn mates with the dominant female. In the process there may be many other males present, other females may try to capitalize on this and the dominant female would be obliged to run them off to prevent them from taking advantage.

Surely the dominant female would also prevent any subordinate females within the flock from mating as well, as their chicks would be competing for food against her own and perhaps this is why Felicity hasn't shown to have produced any eggs, though her vocalizations since taking the throne may be an attempt at drawing in potential mates. This is of course assuming birds come and go as they please rather than staying in permanent groups, but the general idea is each gender fends for itself, males compete with other males and females compete with other females.

Another possibility is foreign females may try to lay in an existing nest in the absence of a suitor of their own to care for the eggs. Whether or not the nesting male would allow this is hard to tell, they'd most certainly be deadly opponents to any predators wishing to have an Emu egg, but would the male become aggressive to a foreign female aiming to lay more eggs in his nest?

As for feeding comparison in captive birds. I've seen Gerry eat several times a day, but the rest of his time is spent investigating sounds and movement or resting in the shade rather than grazing.
He's worked out where the shade will be at different times of the day, it does get quite hot here though is is cooling down and by October there will be frost on the ground in the morning. The morning sees the East side of the house bathed in sunlight up until about 1 PM, and this is when the trees provide more shade and this is where he can be found laying down when not busy elsewhere. The afternoon sees the West side of the house under the hottest sunlight of the day, and here he can be found laying under the tree in the middle of the backyard or next to the back door.

 

[chickenzoo]

I know Foulmans emus....both sat the nest. many people consider a trio of emu...two males and one female.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Dawn. Live. A small first: I recognised the booming of a particular female, though I can't be sure which it was. It is long, rather quieter, and goes like this at the end: ‘Boom boom boom baboom baboom boom.’ Seventeen or eighteen booms is a record.

Greedy is here alone, and displaying (?!) She’s feisty this morning. [I'm working on Raptor's text.]

A half an hour later: Greedy is definitely up to something. She vocalising at intervals. Has a bit of ruff up. Is standing in Her Corner of the gums. There is a bird calling nearby. Greedy clearly indicates where it is, south west, because she's facing that way, and watching intently. She's moved now -- south west.

Could I interimlly posit as terms 'T' and 'A' -- Territorial (stuff) and Attraction (stuff)? For example, when we get the female-male two-way conversations at dawn, that's A stuff. If my notion of 'vocal recconnaissance turns out to be sound, that's T stuff.

The missing link is some data from me that identifies whether a distant bird is m or f.

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Greedy is standing in the clearing, looking around; but she’s not just looking around, she’s Looking Around!! Her body is stock still. Her head is Arrow Straight in one direction until click! She turns her head to watch in another. Usually, it’s the direction in which the two birds are.

I understand now that dawn is the very best time to audit. Two hours later, there just a little too much other noise, mostly from other birds, to easily hear distant emus.

There are two birds audible, one south west and one north east. I’m almost certain that one is female. I’ve just been able to observe Greedy booming. Wow!! I think she’s the double boomer.

Now, here’s a thought: in many species, the size of a male can be judged at some distance because the bigger the male, the deeper the boom. Could this be the case for female emus? I almost think that Greedy knows how to ‘work’ her vocal sac to get deep booms and double booms – just a thought.

Finally, I can’t help but sense that this is T stuff: it’s another female that G. is interacting with, and her demeanour really seems more like ‘Stay away!’ than ‘Come and share my grass!’ [Yes, I know that we generally agree that females defend their territory; but instance by instance, case by case, I need to figure out when it's the one thing, and when the other, or not . . . or something else yet again.]

S.E.