Dumb birds no more: #Emus and #rheas are technical innovators, say researchers https://phys.org/news/2025-02-dumb-birds-emus-rheas-technical.html paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-88217-8

"palaeognath innovation is not as complex as in #crows and #parrots. However, it is still a very important finding... There were no reports of technical innovation in #palaeognaths before this study, and there was a prevailing view that they are dumb birds... that is not true. Technical innovation may have evolved far earlier in #birds than previously thought"

Nope, i'm not buying it. Any attempt to imply #emus are not birdbrained, just won't wash with me.

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/life/science/2025/02/23/emus-food-puzzle-research

I'll never forget those times, on the long lonely road to Broken Hill, decades ago in another life, when we saw a flock of emus in the mulga & scrub, hundreds of metres from the road, notice the car, begin running parallel with us [ie, still hundreds of metres away], then incomprehensibly alter course by 45 degrees to make a beeline for us... then not stop once reaching the edge of the road, but continue onto & across the road. I had already begun slowing once i noticed the initiation of kamikaze mode, so i was able to brake & not hit any, but it was still a near thing.

From that day onwards, if i ever search for a shorthand way to express the idea of braindead animals, it is simply...

emus

Laufvögel sind schlauer als gedacht

#Raben oder #Papageien gelten als schau, #Tauben und #Emus dagegen als eher dumm. Bei den Tauben hat sich die Wissenschaft getäuscht. Und nun sieht es aus, als ob sie auch bei den #Laufvögel⁣n umdenken muss.

Emus gelten manchen Beobachtern als die dümmsten Vögel der Erde, etwa weil sie scheinbar unreflektiert in Zäune rennen (die es in ihrem Lebensraum nicht gab) oder weil Menschen sie einfach in Schach halten können, indem sie einen Stock über ihren Kopf halten. Dabei wurden ihre geistigen Fähigkeiten vielleicht einfach nicht ausreichend studiert.

https://www.spektrum.de/news/ornithologie-laufvoegel-sind-schlauer-als-gedacht/2254273

Now the #emus : the revolution has begun.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/south-carolina-emus-missing-horry-county/

Lionel the Lion and Gavin Bear have set off from Perth to search for Lionel's fore-bears (or fore-lions.) From Perth to Geraldton to Kalbarri to Shark Bay to Carnarvon to Coral Bay. After 1500km they come to a little town facing the Ningaloo Marine Reserve.
Use tag #lionelseeks to see more of Lionels quest.
#plushies #roadtrip #westernaustralia #emus #wildlife #kalbarri #highway # Read on at www.mawsonbear.blog and view vid. Also to see more, use tag #lionelseeks . #coralbay #quest #westernaustralia
https://youtu.be/1VsQcpagbho

The hidden rule for flight feathers and how it could reveal which #dinosaurs could fly
https://phys.org/news/2024-02-hidden-flight-feathers-reveal-dinosaurs.html

Functional constraints on the number and shape of flight feathers https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2306639121

"in addition to asymmetrical feathers, all the flighted #birds had between nine and 11 primary #feathers. In #FlightlessBirds, the number varies widely— #penguins have more than 40, while #emus have none. It's a deceptively simple rule that's seemingly gone unnoticed by #scientists."

Lionel Seeks His Forelions Ep 5. Emus Country. To see more of Lionel's journey click #lionelseeks . #emus #wildlife .
https://youtu.be/Xswb3fXrafU?si=BpHnDsQqgkb45Rss

It has been observed that when they migrate, emus are chasing rainfall. They’ll follow rain clouds or the smell of wet ground, and also listen for thunder.

Ten things you might not know about emus:

https://topicaltens.blogspot.com/2023/12/10-december-great-emu-war-ended.html

Still unsure as to how or why there'd be an emu in a dungeon, but they're in so many dungeons, there has to be something to it

The positive responses to my picture of an emu have prompted me to share a brief emu video taken yesterday, without the emu's permission, though she seemed pretty comfortable around the camera.

I didn't get much done today, but I did see an emu.

I did an informal portrait session with some of my friend's birbs.

A motorist has been fined after allegedly killing three baby emus while driving through a town in Western Queensland.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-12/woman-fined-over-longreach-emu-deaths/102843814 #cars #birds #emus

If #interspecies #war sounds like a concept that only exists in #scifi and #fantasy, remember that humans have fought wars against #emus and #whales.

The book #MobyDick was, at the time, #RealisticFiction about the ongoing counter-attacks that #SpermWhales were doing against anything that looked like a #whaling ship, and the ongoing efforts of the whaling ships to fight them, effectively a war between whales and #whalers.

It's not fiction, it's the result of #specieism.

Meant to post this before - #Emus taking a stroll on our road before they were rounded up by the sheriff and returned to their owner. Photo taken by a neighbor.

Landholders and residents were licensed to shoot 1.9 million #kangaroos and cull or remove more than 200,000 other native animals - including #emus, #kookaburras and rainbow lorikeets - over five years in #NSW.
#Australia #extinction #wildlife
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8279201/licence-to-kill-2-million-roos-emus-culled-to-protect-humans/

the emus are performing arcane rituals...