Emus at Monarto Zoo, South Australia

An Emu family at Monarto Zoo, South Australia

A few weeks ago some friends of ours took us to the open range zoo at Monarto, just a ten minute drive from my home in Murray Bridge,  South Australia. After a lovely lunch together we all hopped on one of the buses which travel at regular intervals through the animal enclosures so one can get a close up view of the animals.

One of the enclosures contains a large number of Emus. The photo above shows just one family group, the dad and three striped chicks. After the female lays the eggs, the male incubates them and once hatched, looks after the chicks for up to 18 months. The female is free to head off and mate with other males during this time. The female rarely has anything to do with their offspring.

The cheetahs in the adjacent enclosure take a great interest in the Emus. They are constantly frustrated by the fact that they can see them, but cannot catch them due to the high fence between them.

To see more photos of Australian birds, and to see more photos of them go to my other site called Trevor's Birding here.