Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[AntiqueB]

You've got a crowded place this year!

 

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The wild emus know about the lilly pillies.

 

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'Sandy' is quietly gurking happily out the front. Can't quite work out the wheat. But although both pairs have been coming and going a good deal, it's also the case that jockeying for position is going on.

Yesterday Undersized Emu fronted up Offsider for a second -- only for a second, but she hasn't done that in the past.

 

[AntiqueB]

Does size make a difference, or does aggression count more? Could Undersized Emu chase away a larger emu?

 

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'Does size make a difference, or does aggression count more? Could Undersized Emu chase away a larger emu?'

Good question, Antique. For a start, most wild emus vary little in size. U.E. being a runt is odd.

And our guess is that personality -- aggressiveness -- is the bottom line. The half-starved wild emus over towards the National Park aren't there because they like the taste of dirt. They've been forced to the periphery. (The same thing happens in the human condition.)

And here at the bountiful epicentre, we see the same thing. Some aggressive birds are gettin' the juicy figs, the others are not.


SE

 

[AntiqueB]

Leaders and followers in every species, I suppose.

Whoch makes me wonder: Did the Cheeky Chicks seem to have a pecking order? Or Eric's clutch?

 

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'Did the Cheeky Chicks seem to have a pecking order?'

For several reasons, no, Antique. You see, even though there are tiny methodological drawbacks to feeding/taming a clutch, it's only by doing that that we get lengthy observations -- I mean, months and months at a time.

Before and after Dad, we saw the Cheeky Chicks only long enough to see that they are a clutch, and note minor differences in the physical appearance and behaviours. Recall that they came; scored their wheat; preened a bit; and drifted off. And they were on the defensive, sorta huddled in a group -- clutch -- as they did those things. But it's when they were 'on their own' that you'd get good observations of their power plays among each other.

[Undersized Emu and Sandy are here, having a bit of wheat over on the edge of the clearing. Sandy hasn't quite figured out the wheat yet, but they've been a pair for some days now, although drifting off for periods and even overnight.]

 

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'Or Eric's clutch?'

The first clutch -- Greedy, Felicity, and Number One -- certainly did. We'll use them as our exemplar . . . because.

So, they were observed, apart from Alpha and Omega's feeding habits as babies -- much longer than other clutches. And yes, a pecking-order was evident among the three by (wild guess from memory) about six months.

Indeed (this was in 2008) their behaviour was our first good data on the whole business of 'the ballet of power' among wild emus.

 

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https://imgur.com/8GAHLUZ

This is the first good photo of Sandy

[Hmmm . . . Imgur will load stills but not videos.]

 

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https://vimeo.com/1084123784/985b4ab240?ts=0&share=copy