Tenth Fig Season

[briefvisit]

Here is Number One and a chick under the fig tree. Number One is eight now. She was foraging under this same tree when she was a chick, and I was feeding her dad figs before she was born:



And here she is again, nearby, warning off a wild breeding-pair lurking near by, also trying to get some of those sweet juicy figs. This is live-or-die stuff, readers, make no mistake about it. Eric and his family are a dynasty. (You can just pick out the legs of one of the wild birds, to the left of Number One.):


S.E.

 

[mich9510]

Beautiful!

 

[Erka97]

Hey, since I know you watch wild emus a lot I have a question.
How long is the longest you've seen them leave a nest for and still hatch out chicks? I'm asking due to a problem with my incubator and I'd like to know how these things go in the wild.

 

[briefvisit]

Hey, Erka. Data on this is rare. We have a full diary of one incubation (in a middlin' cold part of Oz) and glimpses of one other. But I understand your question, so I'll try:

the incubating male doesn't leave the eggs at all during the incubation, except in the rare instance of being disturbed: he'll bolt; halt; and return as soon as possible.

In your case, I'd be thinking about the range of weather conditions, across the Australian continent, in which males sit. They burn fat to heat a chunk of Mother Earth: astounding feat. In the really cold areas, right up to the edges of the snowfields of the Great Dividing Range, Mother Earth would very soon have the upper hand if the male abandoned the nest -- 3 or 4 hours before the eggs would be well below (what ignorant Mark guesses would be) an acceptable temperature.

Conversely -- and there is a Ph.D. of work to be done here -- the 'range maps' of emu territory tell us that emus live far far into the extremely inhospitable territory/temperatures of central Australia. In such an environment, my wild guess is that a male could theoretically be absent for a couple of days.

[I've lived in northern Western Australia, Erka, in 'winter': it's so mild that, if there's a cloud in the sky, everyone rushes outside to have a look.)

SE