Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

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Today’s post is brought to you courtesy of The Old Guy Who Takes Us to Town, where we buy boxes and boxes of tinned salmon and rice and olives and suchlike. Sometimes, the emus are only disturbed by a vehicle twice a month.



The Cheeky Chicks were here! But only three: one has apparently ‘gone independent.’ They really are scrawny. Undersized Emu is short, but quite stocky. The Chicks are just flat-out scrawny.

https://imgur.com/tfeSl5T

We'll have to sort out who is who in the photo, but it's Limpy Chick and Offsider, and Undersized Emu, and The Chicks

 

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Lots of action in recent days – it’s always like this when the Lilly Pillies are on. We’ve had the pair that marched in and set up shop, but they’ve moved on. And Limpy Chick and Undersized Emu. And The Chicks. And a number of birds skirting the house-clearing either while visible or while vocalizing from just off stage. Here is an interloper being shadowed by Offsider:

https://imgur.com/1dDx0Wd

 

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Lots to report. Yesterday afternoon, a Dad with four lovely first-year chicks was grazing on the edge of the house-clearing. They bolted when they saw me.



This morning, Limpy Chick and Offsider continued the ‘ritual’ stuff that we just don’t understand: standing about, talking to each other, wandering into the bush and back again. Is it a mating thing??



Then The Cheeky Chicks turned up – all four of them. So, can there be some ‘elasticity’ in the membership of the clutch? May one wander off for a couple of days, then return? And how do you find the clutch? Do they call to each other? Does the independent one not get too far from the rest?



And finally, an interloper got bailed up by The Cheeky Chicks and Undersized Emu just before I came in for breakfast. Let's see if this bird turns up later.

 

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https://imgur.com/3fCjGc7

 

[AntiqueB]

I think people don't give animals enough credit. I mean, we're animals, and we're all products of similar evolutionary forces, so why should our behavior and motivation be so very different?

I would say Limpy Chick and Offsider were attracted to each other by something. While they wait for the proper time to lay eggs, why not hang around with each other? If they were only looking to mate, that doesn't require pairing up months before laying eggs.

For the Cheeky Chicks, perhaps the clutch breakup isn't sudden. Perhaps they gradually drift apart. I would think vocal communication is the only way they could find each other. I wonder if they recognize each other if they encounter each other later in life?

And I love the last video!

 

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'For the Cheeky Chicks, perhaps the clutch breakup isn't sudden. Perhaps they gradually drift apart.'

This, Antique, is what happened with the clutch that Limpy Chick and Toosh Toosh belong to. Limpy Chick and Toosh Toosh, having been coddled after their injuries, stayed longer. The rest of the 'chicks' in the clutch went bush one by one before them.

 

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'I would say Limpy Chick and Offsider were attracted to each other by something. While they wait for the proper time to lay eggs, why not hang around with each other? If they were only looking to mate, that doesn't require pairing up months before laying eggs.'

This is a fine observation. Look up the term 'assortative mating' (which is a most unpopular subject in a left-wing world).

As with humans, figuring out the quality of a prospective mate takes time.

And the evolutionary value of 'memory maps' remains to be worked out. A male and a female not only, it seems, spend time together before breeding, but they travel together!

Perhaps then, if, say, a male has five or seven clutches in a lifetime, he has added to his memory map details of country -- water, grass, other sources of food -- from all seven of the females he mated with.

 

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'I mean, we're animals, and we're all products of similar evolutionary forces, so why should our behavior and motivation be so very different?'

There's a story for another time here, but this distinction is a major part of my academic research (when I'm not observing emus).

Here's a brief brief insight:

Three aspects of the lives of human beings can be identified: things that are obviously genetic. Things that are obviously cultural. And things that get confused as being one or the other (or are a mixture).



In humans, there is a lot lot more cultural stuff than with emus. So, emu life can be usefully seen as a sort of ‘stripped down’ model of human life.



But you might ask: ‘What is emu ‘culture’?!’ Well, the knowledge of the location of the house-clearing here is passed from Dad to his chicks. This is ‘cultural transmission.’ It’s the reason that human children learn the language(s) spoken around them as they acquire language.