Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

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They're here.

 

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https://imgur.com/MpHrOKM

 

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https://imgur.com/YAv2c4K

 

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https://imgur.com/MpHrOKM

 

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Dad and The Cheeky Chicks have been here two days out of the last three. I was a bit busy. So didn't get good photos.

But yesterday sat in the drizzling summer rain, with sweet coffee, and got a good half-hour observation:

one of the chicks was quite happy to wander as much as 40-50 yards from Dad and siblings. We've seen a chick do this before, but is it the same chick?

Meanwhile, the power-play between Offsider Emu and Dad/chicks remains hilarious. Dad is wise enough to stay well out of the way. But the chicks positively swarm around the breeding-pair, sneaking right up to get a peck of wheat.

Offsider puts up with it until most of the wheat is gone, then attacks the chicks; but 'the chicks' is a starburst of speed and cheekiness.

 

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One of the chicks -- the one singled out by Offsider each attack -- is at risk of gettin' its toosh seriously swiped. We call it 'stepping on the tail.' One emu driving off another will make mighty swipes down across the victim's toosh as the victim high-tails it out of town.

So, a couple of the chicks have copped good hard swipes from Offsider; but the other chicks couldn't care less what's happening to their sibling, and are already coming around in a tight circle to sneak back up on the wheat.

 

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Yesterday I interviewed again the farmer who has seen ‘Eduardo the Emu’ on her property. This is great data for Planet Rothschildi because it’s a chance to compare data. It was a novelty for the farmer that we were trying to understand emu behaviour rather than just saying, ‘Oh, what a nice photo!’ So:



Eduardo and his clutch are not at all tame as the emus here are. The farmer and her kids noticed an emu with chicks in tow on several occasions, at a distance of about 80 yards. But the kids were enchanted, and they named him ‘Eduardo.’



Indeed, we are not even quite sure if it is the same emu Dad they’ve seen on different occasions. Let’s take a swing at this: could it be the same emu? Sighted in different years?



Well, that would mean that one or more emus have crossed the ‘wildlife fence’ (which we know nothing about) from the National Park onto this property (where they can gorge on the crop). If the sightings have been of a male with chicks several years apart, we might guess that this Dad has the crop on his ‘memory map’ – just as the emus here have the plums and figs on their memory maps.



If the Dad and chicks didn’t flee wildly at the sight of cars/people, then that’s a tiny bit of tameness, which suggests, faintly, that it’s the same Dad both times.



I saw a photo dated early summer – so, black-head chicks -- of a Dad with three chicks in tow crossing a paddock. Very nice. Go, Eduardo!