Planet Rothschildi

[Tame Emu Guy]

Morning, K.B. Yup, you’re right. I hadn’t thought of it like this in the past because the distinction here on BYC was between me, and people who could do stuff like give their birds injections and pull their ticks and pull their eggs out from under them. I have been using the word ‘tame,’ but thinking of it in the sense of totally tame-not at all tame.

You missed The Big Tick Drama!! Greedy was ill from a fat fat tick on her face, but she wasn't tame enough to let me pull it off. Stuff like that makes you feel that the birds here are still 'wild.'

It was fun to see just how easily I got close to the chicks. I have kept my distance.

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

[rest day]

A four-feet-long venomous snake (‘dugite’) came in my living-room door yesterday (only for a few seconds, but yeh . . . ). The chicks pass regularly through the gap between that door and the fence. So, we have a datum: there are snakes in the chicks’ environment.

I don’t know if a snake could digest a chick – a small one, perhaps. So, we don’t know if snakes are a predator of the emu (eat eggs?). It would be one in a million to see a Parent Plus encounter a snake. Perhaps, wa ha ha, the rule is stomp first ask questions later.

Next: ‘Exposure to a rich variety of foods over the seasons and years slowly acquaints the youngster with the very important fact that not every type of food is available at all times and that sometimes it is necessary to travel to a specific destination to obtain the food.’

The Orangutans, Kaplan, G. and Rogers, L.​

This was written about orang-utans, but isn’t it a succinct expression!! Eric is patiently teaching his chicks the map of the world they will inherit.

Next: I came across a term used to describe the social dynamic of chimpanzees: ‘fission-fusion.’ It defines a social dynamic in which the members sometimes socialise, and sometimes live rather solitarily. It seems a much less clumsy formula than ‘Emus are solitary creatures.’ (Some species of dolphin have the same dynamic.)

Finally: on the way to town, I saw a flockette of lovely birds by the road at Stinky Creek. Their acculturation with the cars continues to amaze: they couldn’t care less. We must soon go for dawn-observations over there: can we learn anything about how the birds are reacting to the onset of summer? There is a rather large population of birds vying for rapidly-shrinking pastures.

Supreme Emu

 

[Raptor65]

I have observed Gerry kill and eat a small mouse before, intercepted the cat as he was carrying it to the house with the intent to bring it inside and let it go but the cat dropped it and wandered off rather than try to sneak past Gerry.
He made rather short work of it by shaking it side to side in his beak before deciding it was dead and swallowed it whole.

 

[Calla]

How would they deal with rats?

At least my Emus are not eating them lol thank god...just as well, in case they had some poison and then tried to get water from the bucket nearby.......my 4 cats keep mice down at least 1 a day on my doorstep lol excellent workers and also good housecats.
Calla

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Morning, Raptor. Morning, Calla.

Hey, that’s a great datum, Raptor!! I have really wondered if emus actually eat critters. (One Indian Website claims that emus are strict vegetarians – like many of the prospective purchasers of the Indian Exotic-Emu-Meat Businesses that the Website is trying to sell.)

A female was quietly booming before dawn this morning. Hmmm . . .

S.E. has been so tired. I hope I haven’t fibbed about getting over to Stinky Creek (before dawn!); but I have been a bit better, and I would really enjoy trying.

You may recall, guys, the spot from which we observed over ‘back of Oudman’s.’ It is a very large but poor quality pasture that backs straight onto the National Park. Well, when we observed at Stinky Creek last winter – with the French birdwatcher, when we saw the mustangs – there was a huge block of blue gums there. They have been cut. There is now a ‘pasture’ over a half-a-mile square. It also backs onto the National Park. There is a lot to learn there.

Next: K.B. and I have been Google-Earthing my place. Wow!! It’s been a while since I did, and the Original Swamp is much more apparent to me. This week, I shall start considering the logistics of our trips to the lake behind Lake Muir.

The Trips to Byanup Lagoon

​

So, what’s the big deal about Byanup? Well, we hope to get good photos of a large flock of wild birds drinking at the Lagoon; and that will be a first. I haven’t seen anything like that on the Net thus far.

But it’s the context that I hope readers relish: the life of modern emus has become a function of fences and ‘human’ water. But, if there are no fences impeding movement on the south side (National Park side) of the Lagoon, then we may have absolutely no less than a momentary glimpse of ‘pre-historic’ – that is, real – emu behaviour. We hope to see wild birds congregate and interact at a large body of water to which they have relatively unimpeded access.

What will we see?

Will they be a homogenous flock – a flock of sixty or seventy or eighty!!

Or do they move from their pastures to the Lagoon and back in their respective ‘power groups’?

Will the males with chicks move as separate units?

Or will Parent Plus be a part of the power group?

Will they squabble?

Will we be able to identify lots of breeding-pairs?


Supreme Emu

 

[Raptor65]

There really aren't any strict diets in nature, Emus may feed primarily on plants, but are not above supplementing their diet with meat like most animals.

Lions are carnivores, but will occasionally eat plants to supplement their diet, as will wolves. Deer are herbivores, but will also eat meat on occasion, as will cows and pigs.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

[Just a little energy returning to the Project]

I have been waiting to start on Stages of Separation. Eric brought Number One, Felicity, and Greedy, to the house-clearing in (?) January, 2009. We guess that the fact that I was actively taming them changed the normal parent-chicks dynamic. One thing I recall is that, as the chicks reached about . . . hmmm? . . . eight or ten months, Eric became less and less tolerant of sharing food with them. So, that’s a Stage of Separation. Within a couple of months, Eric was driving the chicks of ‘his’ food.

Well, readers, Eric and the two chicks are roosting tonight in separate rows. I will check at first light to see if they are still sitting separately, and will check their roost.

Just think! Those two morsels of emu-ness snuggled together in the dark, with their little hearts beating fast at the thought that a fox will jump them while they are asleep. (I have by moonlight seen a fox no more than twelve feet from the side door. There are a lot of foxes hereabouts.)

Supreme Emu

 

[Calla]

S.E. Looks you need a night guard with a shot gun...or they clear all this new Babies...they are so cheeky and not really afraid of Humans.....my heart bleeds......
A Chap bought 2 Emu chicks from me 3 months old , and at 10 months old.....almost adult size...while he was out, Fox killed both and others too, Geese, Bantams. Chickens..
Here in UK many buy Alpacas now, but they won't guard them, had 3 reports this year, the Fox just passes Alpacas and goes for the prey.

My Llama would not let this happen,

Calla


They are very gentle and love young Animals..

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Hi, Calla. Gee, I’ve typed about ten drafts of this post.


‘ . . . Nature, red in tooth and claw.’

Tennyson
​

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Lots to report!!

It’s only 7:35 a.m., and I feel as though I have lived a whole day. Great dark clouds are bringing a summer storm as I type, and Eric Plus, soaked to the skin from swimming in the dam, are moseying past the window, to attack their latest victim, the pear tree.






At first first light, I was observing Eric Plus. Outcome unsure: the chicks were separate at dusk; they were with Eric when I saw them this morning; but I found what seems to be a chicks-only roost. Let’s be patient, and see if we can get better data. For the second, though, this photo may be another Internet first: a wild-emu-chicks’ roost.




What deserves mention is what was happening when I got there – nothing. Eric was standing motionless, moving neither head nor feet. He stood thus for well over fifteen minutes.

I note that there were two other birds audible, one female, booming weakly to the west, and another bird so close to Eric that at first I thought it was him. Then E. stretched, and stood stock still a bit more. About twenty minutes altogether. (The chicks sat motionless beside him the whole time.) I’ve never seen an emu stand so still for so long.

Is it possible that Eric was doing an ‘audit’ a little like the ones that we observed last winter? Felicity turned up a half an hour later. It might well have been her (or her consort) that I heard. All opinions welcome!

Then, while down by the house later, I saw a big bird standing in an aisle of gums. It stood for a second, then bolted -- Felicity’s consort. We are yet to get a good long look at him (scruffy); but the fact that he has ‘stuck’ is pretty cool for Supreme Emu, who has been watching Felicity Emu since she was a chick, and hopes to see her scramble onto the evolutionary carousel next mating-season.

It’s worth noting that the dynamic of the house-clearing project may well be part of the problem: if she were not strongly imprinted on the clearing here, she might simply go elsewhere to mate!
One reason this comes to mind is her insistence on vocalising threateningly when she comes to the clearing. Eric Plus got an extra handful of wheat to ‘anchor’ them on the other side of the house, so I could pat and feed Felicity. Felicity Plus certainly knew Eric Plus were here – they would have ‘reconnoitred’ as they approached.

It seems that in general in Emu Life, the birds don’t just clarify the pecking-order by fighting, then leave that ranking as ‘standing’ for some time. On the contrary, they seem to expend an unnecessary amount of time ‘re-iterating’ their squabbles – but we need to observe a lot more wild birds before we can be sure of this. It may be a fact only of the clearing.

At one point – still before 5a.m. – I found myself back in the block of gums in front of the house, quietly sitting, listening, scanning the trees with the binos. There were at least four or five birds in the 100-yard-square block of gums. It just doesn't get boring. Each new datum at this point is connected to more and more from the past, so I understand much more of what I am watching.

Next, the chicks: their development is apparent to me. Their memory of the backyard is improving (though I suspect that once or twice a day they conspire: ‘I know! We’ll go into the backyard; cheep piteously at length; then Gullible Guy will give Dad a handful of wheat to lure us out – voila! Extra rations!’)

Yesterday, for the first time, I saw one chick chasing the other – (deep sigh): they are becoming individuals (‘Stage of Separation,’ I suppose!). I never fail to find amusing the miniature-ness of the chicks. The chick in the lead was running upright. The chick pursuing had its head down, in that odd attitude of the emu which somehow suggests power and frustration at the same time. It’s funny when adult birds do it. It’s hilarious when the chicks do it.

(Note that where there is space, emus of all ages sometimes spontaneously run great distances as they play and squabble – hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of yards at a time is not unusual.)

I’ll try to watch the chicks at length, to learn about this Separation stuff. For example, the distances that Eric lets the chicks wander away are getting larger. (He remains, though, the wide-eyed distraught parent when he suddenly realises that they are, for example, clear the way on the other side of the house.)

When Felicity turned up this morning, she didn’t look too imposing because her whole head was covered in fluffy little – I don’t know. Off some flower, I suppose; but not nearly imposing as, say, a necklace of emu skulls. Here she is:



Here below is another study of her. I’m barracking that she will mate in her fifth year, readers, and I hope that you will all also barrack for her. Okay, yes, being raised in the house-clearing is a big break in life. Oddly, though, Felicity is struggling simply because she’s a nice person. (She would make a great pet for children!) But being nice is a millstone around your neck when your life revolves around sharing space with characters like Eric and Greedy. So, Go, Felicity!!

Supreme Emu