Planet Rothschildi

[Tame Emu Guy]

Hi, Kerry. Yup. I think so -- but not ‘migrating.’ That perhaps suggests more so a once-a-year-from-here-to-there dynamic.

I suspect that each bird has a territory in which there are major and minor and now and later pastures etc. that it grazes on, and that the birds form alliances (like breeding-pairs) sometimes to ‘try it on’ somewhere where they wouldn’t get a look in on their own – and that’s a perfect description of this morning.

Sometimes it has an air of choreography about it!

Felicity's consort? Probably shyness. Felicity and Eric know who's who and what's what. New Guy is suffering sensory overload. The way that wild birds ignore me because they see other emus -- Felicity and Eric -- ignoring me is a magic key to the observations.

Supreme Emu

 

[kbgh]

I agree "migrating" isn't the right word, it's more like roving. Moving from feeding ground to feeding ground or more ssimply put "following the food".

Maybe like this senario, Today it's ripe apricots tomorrow ripe figs the next day grain and then back for more ripe figs or apricots whichever comes first

. Oh yeah and in between that generous human gives us handfuls of wheat.

What a sucker, he thinks we like him but really it's the goodies he hands out.

S.E. I think he's talking about you. LOL

I'm going to check out subspecies. and location.

Kerry

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Hi, K.B.!

Although I am not the sort of person who would shoot emus with tranquilliser darts in order to ‘install’ GPS devices, I would give a fortnight’s pension to know, for example, at Moments A, B, and C, where every bird within five miles was.

The point here is that the birds’ normal movements fall between (a) they are nomadic,

and (b) they spend their lives on an area the size of tennis court.

Assuming that that is the case, we can slowly slowly construct a diagram of Joan Q. Citizen Emu’s daily and yearly behaviour.

So, for example, last autumn, a bird-watcher and I went to Stinky Creek four times, and recognised the same bird (a remarkably ‘sandy’ bird, K.B.) in exactly the same place on three of those occasions. Now that’s a good datum.

Similarly, here at the fig tree, I have seen a pair of recognisable birds (the ‘country cousins,’ remarkably tall and skinny birds) repeatedly over a month or more.

Boy! You sure are right about my (‘my’) emus loving the wheat more than me!! Conversely, it seems as though those who raise their birds from hatchlings really are loved by them. But I accept the dynamic here, Indeed, in a way, I prefer it: the birds are wild (‘wild’), and that’s the beauty of it for me. If Eric the Emu were tame, he wouldn’t be Eric the Emu.

Supreme Emu

 

[kbgh]

Nomadic is probably a great definition from what you are telling us about the emu in your area.

Nomadic may be defined as : members of a group (or species) who have no fixed home and move according to the seasons from place to place in search of food, water, and grazing land.

In search of food or grazing. Sounds exactly what you have been describing.

So let's call them Nomads.

And your "tame" birds would then be squatters and beggars. Since they found a sucker who feeds them goodies and talks to them (LMAO).

As for those hatchlings who love their keepers. Will that love remain when the lil critters grow up and start wanting a mate? My guess would be partly. I'm sure they would show affection for their human friends but don't get between 2 that are courting. I don't think the results would be a friendly peck.

Kerry

 

[chickenzoo]

I.can chime in on my experience with pet Emu raised from chicks. .which are now breeding. I have two adult males of breeding age...Merlin who has a mate and has successful produced chicks the last three years. I can walk up to Merlin anytime and give him attention. He is not as friendly as Henry but likes attention when he wants it. During breeding season the only change is he trys to romance me also....lol. when he builds a nest or is sitting on eggs I can reach in and take the eggs or mess with him etc...but don't let another Emu get near him..he's off in a fierce.chase.
Henry....he's a love. he doesn't have a mate here. He did at his other home but she died trying to lay. He never changed his sweetness. I have.a young female in with him and two juvies. he is warming up to her but is still his.cuddly self. He is on five plus acres of wooded area that he disappears into.....but all I have to do is call him and here he comes.for a cuddle.
Some Emu can get more aggressive.....but I have not experienced this with mine.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Yay!! Got discussion!

I think, K.B., that E.H. is on the money in this case. It seems, particularly when someone has raised a chick from Day One, that emus can became remarkably tame/loving.

‘Nomads’ is indeed the right word -- but an important part of the definition must be noted: there is a ‘traditional route or circuit’ [My Random House Webster’s Unabridged]. I am sure enough that all the birds adhere to the same basic pattern, that is, they move, on a seasonal basis, around a circuit.

This includes my birds. Their circuit is certainly ‘tighter’ because they get such fabulous food at the house-clearing – but that’s only when they are ‘in orbit,’ K.B.!! All my birds regularly join the wild emus for months at a time. Felicity was away for seven months last year. Eric was absent for the entire breeding-season. It’s a dynamic that we’ve been trying to unravel for some time. I commented in the ‘winter thread’ that it seems almost as though they Felicity and Greedy co-operate, taking turns being here.

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

The Tragedy of Attrition

Third draft:

this afternoon I crunched and crunched and re-crunched the meagre data I have on ‘emu-graphics’: how many emus are there in any given area (under my observation)? There are a number of reasons why I did this. Details on request.

And gee . . . I got some really interesting results!!!

I think:

# there are fewer birds than I thought
# I have observed/sighted more of them than I thought
# there are fewer birds elsewhere than I thought
# another way of saying this is that the birds are just as focussed on the ‘round of human-made pastures’ as we thought, but there are not nearly so many wandering around elsewhere.

Here’s the really interesting part, though:

Attrition of Chicks​

Note One: we have a surprising amount of actual data on this subject.

Note Two: here is our Interim Equation: on just ‘my place’ (1.5 miles square), I know a certain number of birds from repeated sightings. ‘Kay . . . now double that number – no! triple it! Call that the adult population, and assume that that group is more isolated than we thought (which is the conclusion I reached). That gives us 33 adult wild emus.

Next: we assume that ‘D Day’ is a hypothetical day on which the first egg in a nest hatches. We assume eight fertile eggs per nest, which I think is reasonable. [Do you guys?]

So, we have sightings of six clutches since D Day. At 8 eggs per nest, that’s 48 hatchlings by the time the last egg hatches.
First Conclusion: a week after D Day, there are more chicks on this block than adult emus!!

Now it gets ugly: here is what we know:

One: Boy Emu’s clutch lost 4 out of a possible 9 before he hit the trail. 40%

Two: if we assume that the clutch from which Greedy, Felicity, and Number One came was normal – 8 – that means that 5 were lost before I ever saw them. I lost Number One when she was a young adult. [R.I.P. Number One.], and Greedy would almost certainly have died except for my intervention. So, if we count Greedy as lost, then we have one datum (from four and a half years) of the total attrition of a single clutch: 7 out of 8 = 86% if we count Number One. 75% if we don’t.

Three: my single encounter with Peter Parent Emu caused the loss of 2 out of 8 ‘seen chicks.’ (It’s irrelevant that we rescued the chicks.) That’s 25% in a single afternoon.

Four: we have sightings of 4 parenting males at The 500, and we’ll allow 5 chicks per clutch. Some of those chicks were still pretty young. So, at that fairly early stage, we already had an attrition of 12 out of 32. That’s 35%.

Five: Six: Eric’s 2012 clutch has already suffered 75% attrition.

We shall omit all non-solid data. For example, I have seen several clutches of six chicks at about a year of age, and a clutch of one at about a year of age. Overall, though, if we then extrapolate the figures even most conservatively – for example, we assume that Boy Emu lost only one more chick in the remaining 103 weeks before those chicks would be ‘adult’ (let alone of breeding-age!!) – then the total attrition rate is on the top side of 60%.

Supreme Emu

 

[kbgh]

Your numbers seem reasonable due to the fact you have predators on the chicks, both native and feral.

We see this with the wild turkey's each spring a hen will bring in 15 to 18 chicks when they first hatch and by the time they are 12 weeks, the "flock" of chicks usually has dwindled to about 6 to 8 at most. That's roughly 50% attrition.

The attrition, whether with the emu or turkeys, just show natures way of keeping the species going without over population.

Think about this. You mentioned 48 chicks and 33 adults, if all the chicks survived and reached breeding age and at your ratio of about 25% more chicks than adults, they had increased by another 25% now 81 adults and 105 chicks (give or take a couple) soon SWA would be overrun like some areas are with rabbits, nature must use it's own checks and balances or there would be too many emu and too little food.

Hope this makes sense.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Yeh, K.B., sure does make sense. It was merely my actual ignorance of birds that had kept me from quite understanding how high the rate is. In orangutans, for instance, attrition is fabulously low. The arithmetic of it came out as I was making wild guesses about 'emu density.'

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Speckles and Speckles Girl turned up again yesterday. I got a good look at them. He is a fine healthy bird, but he looks like he sleeps in a dumpster.

They turned up this morning, and nonchalantly started eating ‘Eric’s’ apricots. Strangely, Eric put up with it for a while, then drove them off.

Checked the Top Corner and the swamp paddock and The 500 yesterday. Wow! The amount and quality of pasture is shrinking so fast!

[First time yesterday: the sharp, summer-comin' smell of eucalyptus oil in the air. Do you guys have Vicks Vaporub? or anything with eucalyptus oil in it? Flies are swarming, and the whole horizon is shimmering with heat.]

S.E.