Showing posts with label emu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emu. Show all posts

Australia's Bird the Emu

Early European settlers were amazed by the emu.  Governor Lachlan Macquarie was so impressed that, in 1822, he sent two emus as gifts to the Governor-General of India, the Marquis of Hastings.  When Macquarie set sail from Australia back to England on the ship Surry, he wrote that voyaging with the passengers were "pets" that included six emus, travelling in roomy well aired pens  well-aired pens. The animals were to be given as gifts to friends and patrons of Governor Macquarie back in England. Unfortunately many of the pets, including one of the largest emus died on the trip.
Emu with young chicks
In l791 John Harris, who arrived in the new colony as a surgeon, wrote that emus were swifter than the fleetest of greyhounds. Emu eggs were described as dark Green with little black specks the of pins.  It is a little larger than goose eggs.  The emu is Australia’s largest bird standing up to 2 metres high. lt has wings but it can°t fly. lt can run really quickly around 50 kilometres per hour. The legs are also yery powerful and used for fighting, especially if males are fighting over females. Emus are common throughout mainland Australia but not in dense rainforest and urbanised areas. They are highly nomadic, which means they must move as they need in search of food, water and shelter.

An emu°s courtship is a boisterous affair. There ISs lots of bobbing up and down, weaying and dipping, throat drumming, grunting and fluffing of feathers.  Mating begins late in December: The female flattens a platform of grass into a large nest and lays her clutch of between 7 and 11 dark green eggs lthough it could be as high as 20.  lf it is a good season and there is plenty of rain she might lay one or two more clutches with different males.

After laying her eggs she leaves. The male has the sole responsibility for parenting.  When the eggs are laid, the male gets broody and begins incubation before the clutch is completed. The female stops mating with the male but might continue to lay eggs in the nest. which are fertilised by other males. It takes 56 days of incubation before the eggs hatch and striped chicks appear, usually in early spring. During this time the male emu sits on the eggs. rarely leaying the nest and only standing to turn the eggs every few hours.  He doesn't eat or drink. Drawing on fat reserves, he looses about eight kilograms.
Biology by Ty Buchanan
            Australian Blog   Adventure Australia
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emu australian bird

Kiwi Came from Australia

Three years ago a fossil was found at st Bathams in New Zealand. The record books now have to be rewritten. It seems the fossil is an ancestor of the Kiwi and it indicates that it was related to the Australian emu. This undermines the premise that the kiwi is a solely New Zealand bird. After all it is the national symbol.

You see, the emu relative could fly and it flew to New Zealand. It was a tiny bird compared to the kiwi. The enormous egg that kiwis lay evolved. It was not "handed-down" by the giant Moa. Eggs began to get larger in birds during the Miocene.

The theory that the kiwi originated in Australia was commonly held before this fossil find. It was believed to have got to New Zealand when the country was joined to Australia on Gondwanaland, but his view has been put to rest.

Most New Zealand birds got bigger over time. This was not unusual. The kiwi evolved from the earlier tiny ancestor. Discovery of this 20 million year old fossil was pure luck. It is the oldest fossil ever found in New Zealand.
Conservation by Ty Buchanan
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Ostriches Use Their Wings to Run

The mystery of why dinosaurs evolved feathers has been solved. Observation of ostriches shows that wings are used to retain balance while running. Far from being evolutionary leftovers, they are used constantly.

This finding was made by breeding ostriches that were "human-friendly". Then they were then able to be tested, which took place when they were three years old. The ostriches were made to run down a 300 meter "track", indoors. They were seen to zigzag, brake and turn, guiding their bodies using wings as rudders.

Tests showed that feathers provided lift which improved stability. All living flightless birds are able to evade capture by quickly turning one way then the other. Without wings they would not be able to do this.

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Funny Animal Photos by Ty Buchanan
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Fossilised Eggshells Are Ideal for Extracting DNA

Jurassic Park is getting closer to reality. Australian scientists have managed to get DNA from fossilised eggshells of extinct birds. The Team warns though that bringing ancient creatures back to life is a long way off. Particles of fossilised eggshells from Australia, New Zealand and Madagascar were used in the research.

A target species was the Moa bird which lived in New Zealand into the 18th century. Another was the Elephant Bird which went extinct in Madagascar during the 17th century. Older birds were also worked on: the New Zealand Duck, Australian Owl and an Emu which was 19,000 years old. Work on older fossils did not come up with usable DNA, but the relatively recent ones did give promising results.

Techniques used were the usual reduction of samples and polymerase amplification. These were very short pieces of DNA obtained from minute samples. Eggshells were found to be even better than bones and hair for storing DNA.
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Aboriginals Did Not Wipe Out Megafauna

The argument continues over whether humans were responsible for the extinction of megafauna. Giant emus, large kangaroos, marsupial lions and diprodons were destroyed by Aboriginals in Australia according to new research. This claim is based on fungi in dung of herbivores. For 130,00 years, despite dry periods, charcoal and pollen levels in dung remained the same until Aboriginals arrived. This means that climate change was not responsible for the extinction of megafauna 40,000 years ago.

There is a problem with this. When Captain Cook arrived in Australia the Aboriginal population was extremely low. Forty thousand years ago there would have been only a few hundred thousand of them. How could this low number possibly destroy all of the large animals? Some megafauna would have survived in regions where Aboriginals did not go. Australia is a very large continent.

It is claimed that when the megafauna died out the vegetation changed with more fires, and eucalyptus forests spread out killing off rainforests. Spores in dung is flimsy evidence to support a claim that human arrival led to the demise of megafauna. Rainforests being taken over by eucalyptus sounds very much like climate change. Furthermore. prevailing evidence shows no human remains among megafauna fossils.

Saying that the dung research proves humans destroyed giant animals is still not proven beyond doubt. Gavin Prideaux's announcement that the study "supported mounting evidence that climate change was not to blame" is premature.
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Paleontology

Emu Says

"In my opinion, the Government is out of touch with animals."
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Fossilised Eggshells Are Ideal for Extracting DNA

Jurassic Park is getting closer to reality. Australian scientists have managed to get DNA from fossilised eggshells of extinct birds. The Team warns though that bringing ancient creatures back to life is a long way off. Particles of fossilised eggshells from Australia, New Zealand and Madagascar were used in the research.

A target species was the Moa bird which lived in New Zealand into the 18th century. Another was the Elephant Bird extinct in Madascar during the 17th century. Older bird were also worked on: the New Zealand Duck, Australian Owl and an Emu which was 19,000 years old. In work on older fossils, results did not come up with usable DNA.

Techniques used were the usual reduction of sample and polymeras amplification. These were very short pieces of DNA obtained from minute samples. Eggshells were found to be even better than bones and hair for storing DNA.
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