>we were astounded to see 2 emus swimming across the river! One was an adult,
>the other about half grown.
>How common is this event? Have other bird watchers observed this?
Hi Trevor
Harvey showed me your email and thought that I could respond to your questions?
Emus are known to be good swimmers and have been seen swimming on many
occasions. I have not actually seen an emu swimming myself, however I have
seen many photos. I remember back in the '91-'92 summer (I think) that
there were many emus migrating from dry conditions in NSW to better
conditions in Victoria, the farmers were very worried about their crops,
etc... The emus going into Victoria all had to swim the mighty Murray
River.
I met somebody the other day that was telling me about some pet emus that
her family had when she was a child when she lived on a farm. Apparently
the emus would get very excited when her family would go for a swim in the
farm dam, the emus would follow them into the water and do laps around the
swimming people.
I hope this is helpful
Cheers
Cate Coddington
PS Harvey also says that I should also put in my qualifications, to give my
statements more credibility.
I studied the behaviour of free-ranging emus at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve
in the ACT for my honours year at the Australian National University in
1992.
..........................................
Dr Harvey D. Perkins
Divn Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Faculty of Science
Australian National University | Editor, Gang-gang (Newsletter of
Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia | Canberra Ornithologists' Group)
ph:(02) 6249 2663; fax:(02) 6249 0313 | 42 Summerland Circuit
email: | Kambah, ACT, 2902
...........................................................................
|
