Kira Warm of Sara Lawrence College
The Rhea penneta, commonly known as Lesser Rhea in English (or Ñandu in Spanish), is a flightless bird that looks similar to a small ostrich. These birds inhabit open scrub grasslands in Patagonia as well as on the Andean plateau which spans across Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. Their diet consists of grasses, saltbush, fruits, and the occasional bug or small lizard.
Ñandus love to socialize, flocking in groups of up to 30. Male Ñandus especially enjoy enticing their female counterparts, as they emit “booming” calls to attract and court between 2 and 12 females at a time. Despite these loud courting calls, Ñandus are known for being a quieter species of bird. As adults, however, their reserve does not keep away their main predators: pumas, foxes, and birds of prey. Ñandus also compete with livestock and suffer from nest destruction by other animals.
In terms of protection, their conservation status is listed as “near threatened” due to a population decrease. In 2011, Conservacion Patagonica started monitoring and trying to restore Ñandu numbers within Chacabuco Valley, Chile, where one of the most crucial populations of Ñandu lives. According to the World Wildlife Foundation, Ñandu is poached for its feathers, meat and eggs. Ñandu habitat is also decreasing due to fragmentation because of large scale conversion of grassland to pasture for cattle-grazing.
My encounters with Ñandu’s were limited to a single day driving transect, but we did see three medium-sized groups of Ñandus, all running fast in the opposite direction. Seth Price, who went on a walking transect states, “On my transect I saw 3 Ñandu, all of which were adults. The first was spotted at 8:14 walking southeast at a slow pace. The second was spotted at 8:34 while trotting. The third was spotted at 10:23 running very fast.”
