Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

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Dad and The Cheeky Chicks are still a unit; and the Big Jump?

https://www.travelgumbo.com/2022/08/19/exploring-the-pinnacles-desert-western-australia/

 

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So, emus range over most of Australia. The parts they avoid are the tops of the mountain ranges -- Australia has massive amounts of 'Swiss Alps' -- and the worst of the deserts, in the middle. And the tropical rainforests of Cape York -- cassowary country.

https://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/image-files/australian-deserts.jpg

There's a sort of trick when you look at the list of the world's biggest baddest deserts. Australia's are quite arbitrarily named as separate, but the map shows that they are, in effect, one massive desert.

The Rothschildi -- the sub-species we observe here at Planet Rothschildi -- are the lucky ones. Their habitat is the bottom left corner of the state, relatively good country. We have no data whatsoever on how many/if any perish during the Big Jump of bad years.

Over on the border of the National Park, however, we have found some poops that suggest that the emus in question were doing it very very hard.

What we can be sure about is that if we observed emus in the woodwardi territory, the north of W.A., we'd see a different 'equation.' Have a look at the travelgumbo link.

[And here in brackets, what fun to tease Texans, the folks from the big state! W.A. is three times the size, and our population density is 8% that of Texas -- yep. There are 12 times as many people per square mile in Texas as here.]

 

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That equation is place and season. Spring here is truly optimal for emus. The deserts in the dry times are truly non-optimal for emus -- to the point at which they don't go there!

'In between,' emus survive, and the Dads raise clutches of chicks. The areas in question, Antique, are literally hundreds of thousands of square miles in size, although we'd like to know how large the unfenced areas are.

Our data on the lives of the other sub-species -- woodwardi and novaehollandiae -- is effectively zero.

 

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It's looking very autumn-ey here today. There are (sparse) green blades of grass.

Heard a quiet quiet female vocalisation in the wee hours -- Offsider Emu?

And Undersized Emu was having a nice little vocalisation to itself in the rain.

SE

 

[AntiqueB]

Are emus birds that hide in the rain, or come out and just don't care?

 

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‘Are emus birds that hide in the rain, or come out and just don't care?’

They roost under cover. We’ve only ever one seen a ‘regular’ roost in the open.



Otherwise, their feather pyjamas make them pretty much impervious to wind and rain. Really heavy rain soaks them, and they look unhappy; but no, they don’t hide from the rain.

 

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https://imgur.com/PVdBWwV

This chick copped about two inches of rain in a single night, and turned up at dawn looking like this.

SE

 

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We failed to put treats in our pockets yesterday, when we went walking to the other block. Found Dad and The Cheeky Chicks.



It’s odd that that’s three sightings within literally 150 yards. They’re near water – that’s good. But why have they not puddled across to the house-clearing for weeks?



There was a foreign emu vocalizing behind the fig tree at dawn.



And it’s autumn, readers! It has rained on and off for three days now, and there are tiny tiny patches of light green visible.

 

[AntiqueB]

If the Cheeky Chicks' Dad was going to raise a clutch this year, would he already be paired up?

 

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'If the Cheeky Chicks' Dad was going to raise a clutch this year, would he already be paired up?'

Nice question, Antique.

You see, you can be observing in the house-clearing or out in the bush, see two emus that are likely a breeding-pair, but not know how long they've been a pair. Or where they've wandered while they were a breeding-pair. Or where they will eventually breed if they do.

We could use the term 'pastiche.' Suppose we ask, 'Can emus ride bicycles?' The answer might be: 'insufficient data' or 'Oh, sure -- there were some emus on bicycles down at Wal-Mart just yesterday.'

You see, that's a yes/no datum.

Do emus like figs? Yes.