'Do emus vocalize to find mates?'
Emus aren’t about to print a two-volume dictionary of the emu language. However, there are certainly more sounds that emus make and understand than us hoomernz can distinguish.
We recall watching Felicity with a first-time consort at the moment the pair reached the house-clearing. We just happened to see them approaching. Felicity cruised in, and got a ration of wheat, and sultanas, and a pat. Some minutes later she called the male, who had been waiting at some distance, and it was clear from the male’s movements in the following minutes that he was aware of what Felicity was saying to him.
Listening to a Dad with chicks is perhaps the example we should have started with. The gist of their ‘conversations’ are dead easy to follow. Distress calls are unmistakable.
There was a fascinating and unique event in which Greedy Emu communicated with male emus in the early morning hours. Several turned up the following morning, as though by appointment. It happened several times, and we are sure that some clear communications happened between that resident female and some males.
The ‘assessments of power’ we’ve already mentioned. These are an abiding mystery (and we don’t know how sight factors in). Suffice to say that there is more communication happening in these cases than us humans understand.
Just this morning, at dawn, Limpy Chick and Offsider stood close and spent several minutes making little noises together. These meant nothing to us, but it’s illogical to think that two critters would stand together and make completely meaningless sounds.
So, emus talk among themselves whether in breeding-pairs or other configurations. Females communicate inter-territorially (which is mentioned nowhere in the literature that I’ve found yet). Dads talk to their chicks.
So it seems counter-intuitive that potential partners don’t communicate.
SE
