Planet Rothschildi

[Tame Emu Guy]

Good technique this morning, but no joy: was out of the house (coffee in hand) by 3:59 a.m. No emus audible. Spent a half hour down at Meadow Two, but no birds turned up. Came back and fed Eric and the Cheeky Cheeps.


‘ . . . Galapagos and Antarctic birds and mammals, which . . . evolved in the absence of humans and did not see humans until modern times, are still incurably tame today.’

Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond​

Hmmm . . . ‘incurably tame’?? Diamond is writing here about the relationship between proto-humans and humans and megafauna (critters like genyornis the giant prehistoric ‘emu’ here in Oz) and dodos and moas etc. We might wonder at the relationship between, on the one hand, the 79, 960,000 years that emus spent on this continent without being hunted by humans, and on the other hand, the mere moment of 40,000 years during which they were hunted (and some mega-species hunted to extinction). Could this produce the (I’ve always thought) odd combination of flee-on-some-occasions and wander-up-to-picknickers-and-eat-their-fries-on-other-occasions?

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

What? Wheat and a swim? Okay!






And look like a dag afterwards (Ahh!! You'll have to find the word 'dag'!!)






This is the very first time ever that I have seen an emu swim!!

Supreme Emu

 

[kbgh]

Cool pics. Guess they do like the water, just need a larger bird bath

dag = amusing, quirky and likeable

Guess the shoe fits the emu.

 

[Ashburnham]

Caught up with my reading.
Good work mate- love the latest photos.
Imagine what you could do with a camera with a medium telephoto lens?

I wish there were a few emus around here - fascinating study!

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Hi, Ashburnham,

am working on at least borrowing a camera as we speak.

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Well, readers . . .

the starkest insight into The Emu-Life Dynamic comes in bad bad seasons. Three weeks ago, we were shaping up to see a hot summer, at least a standardly hard season, and that would have given us, in the one-and-a-half seasons we have left of this project, such an insight.

But . . . it’s pouring rain. Third time in three weeks. It seems as though we are to have a bountiful season. (I’ve been looking to see which plants quickly re-green with rain. It’s not the Yummy stuff, but it’s a long long way from starvation.)

So, we’ll have the fun of seeing the chicks cheeping about in a good season.


Next:

I’ve already mentioned The Long-Term Thing: what is going on – two more chicks ‘imprinting’ strongly on the house-clearing – is sub-optimal because the very best environment for long-term observations would be a house-clearing that was not too ‘hot.’

Now, Eric is a ‘here emu.’ He is entitled to his share of wheat; and -- as with Greedy’s consorts, and Felicity’s if he sticks, and Mrs. Eric, and the three chicks I tamed -- that wheat is shared. So, Eric has brought the chicks, and we can’t separate them from Eric.
The sole action I could take would be to stop feeding Eric – but he was lord of the house-clearing, a mean, established emu, before I showed up (Autumn 2008). He’d just stay.

So, it seems as though, over the next three or four years, the situation here will be, as I said, ‘hot’; and it remains to see if I can sort out the good data from the bad.

Felicity is my concern. Of course, despite my protestations to the contrary, the birds are my pets. Greedy can look after herself – with knobs and bell on -- but Felicity has already been living on the edge of the gums for two years, and if two more adult birds join the fray against her, she’ll lose. Let’s wait and see.

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Yes, indeedy, the chicks are centring themselves on the house-clearing! Yesterday morning, I saw one just sitting in the backyard, a behaviour that indicates how comfortable it is. This morning, Eric Plus drove a foreign bird off, and the chicks led the way. Has anyone else noticed aggression like this in chicks?

It’s a magnificent morning here, cool and cloudy.

S.E.

 

[Raptor65]

It could be the chicks are simply learning to chase strangers away by example, they're very keen on copying different behaviors.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Hi, Raptor. Yeh, okay, they are following example – but I am dismayed at how belligerent they are!! I see a chick that could still hide in a plastic bucket running twenty feet ahead of its Dad as it sails in to attack an adult bird big enough to kill it with a single swipe.

Wow!!

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

‘Kay, beloved regular readers. No muckin’ around:

do we cut Eric Plus off? Feed them no more?



Supreme Emu