Today I Saw a Native Animal

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That is Dad minding the chicks until maturity.
Mum lays and sits on eggs until hatched then she buggers off leaving Dad responsible.
It's actually the emu father that does ALL of the nesting, hatching and chick-raising. The mother just lays the eggs near his chosen nesting spot and he rakes them into a cluster and resumes brooding.

emu nesting.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu
 
Spinifex Hopping Mouse.jpg

We spent this afternoon putting together a diorama of the Spinifex Hopping Mouse for the Cue Heritage Centre. It's one of the few species of Hopping Mouse not yet extinct. This little fellow was found dehydrated in the old bank building in the centre of Cue.
 
It's nice to get to see these creatures but what a terrible life for a bird that should be souring freely above our great country.
I don't know the circumstances of those two, but I'd suspect they've suffered lasting wing injuries along the highway and have been rehabbed but cannot be released into the wild.

Unfortunately, the highway is the graveyard for many eagles, which are attracted to the never-ending carrion supply from kangaroo and emu roadkill. With their massive wingspan, eagles can't quickly fly off when a vehicle approaches and even if they aren't killed on impact, the blast of wind (especially from the huge trucks), will often knock them out of the air, leaving them broken and bleeding by the roadside, to die a slow death in the heat and dust.
 

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