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Project Noah Nature School
Dromaius novaehollandiae
We saw this baby emu with its Dad by the side of the road in Arcadia Valley. It was only a foot high - probably only a month or two old. The stripes provide excellent camouflage, as shown in the second shot, but these fade between 4 and 6 months of age and the emu will be fully grown at about 12 months. Emu fathers do all the incubation and parenting of young emus. Shot 3 shows Dad - he was taller than me, but as I got close he just calmly led his chick away.
Spotted on Sep 21, 2013
Submitted on Sep 27, 2013
1 Comment
Nice info, didn't realise the daddy birds did all the parenting. Thanks for sharing!