Rhea Missing After Dog Attack

I have injured and missing rhea after an attack by two dogs

Centre back: April, last year’s first born. Like the rest of last year’s chicks, she grew up believing my German Shepherd was her mother and something to cuddle up to.

An innocent and easy target – she was badly bitten and unlikely to recover. It seems that the three dominant males of the flock then led an escape over two fences, but the others were unable to climb the fences to follow them. The escapees were:

Right: Tommy, leader of the younger group, was found in a garden and recaptured, traumatized but unharmed. Like April, he had lost any inherit fear of dogs.

Left: Boomer – 5 yrs old, 5 foot high, is the noisy one and Top of the Flock. We know he is in a field near Binley but he needs to calm down before I can coax him back home.

Centre: DC – Daddy Day Care – 5 yrs old and so named because he has always assumed the daytime duties of caring for chicks and youngsters. DC is still missing, believed injured. Rhea are hard to catch, especially when hurt or frightened – and are best coaxed by a known handler rather than coerced. They hide in long grass (undoubtedly what he’s doing now!), run up to 40 mph and can kick hard in self defence if trapped or cornered.

Please, please, contact Elaine Frogley, 07826 464910 if you see him. All information gratefully received – this beautiful bird is scared and hurt somewhere!

ODD FRIENDS?

In their native countries, wild rhea will often follow a herd of cattle. Their quick  reactions help themselves as well as the cattle as they catch the flies that are attracted too, and annoy, the cattle.

At Rope Yarn Corner there are no cattle, so the rhea make do with ponies. It was not love at first sight. The ponies were petrified by these goose-like creatures who could instantly fluff up their feathers and double their size. Nor were they impressed to discover that these oversize chicken could run somewhat faster than they could. In fact, for a while at least, the arrival of the rhea meant that the ponies actually stayed behind their electric fence, even though the current wasn't turned on!

For their part, the rhea disliked the fact that ponies will insist on poking their noses into places where noses have no business to be. This problem, however, was quickly cured by the discovery that ponies noses react favourably to a quick, well-aimed peck. And nothing has a quicker, better aimed peck than a rhea. This is also why the birds don't mind sharing their food with the ponies, they can pick up 100 grains of corn or pellets from the grass in the time it takes a pony's clumsy, snuffling muzzle to retrieve just one...

 

It's enough to give a horse a complex when he meets a bird bigger than himself...