Elephant Puppet sees a baby rhea
3There also appears to be a small population of wild rheas in the United Kingdom.
The breeding season starts in the spring, when the males begin to attract the females by showing off their large wings. You will also here the male produce a mating call; a two tone, deep then high call. One the male has chosen his mate he will circle her. After around two weeks the eggs will start being produced.
Unlike ostriches or emus, rheas are not regulated by the U.K.'s Dangerous Wild Animal Order, making it easier for people to buy or sell the birds.
Sometimes a nest can hold as many as 50 eggs!
The males sit on the eggs and take care of the babies after they hatch.
They won't let any animals come near – not even the females. The male rhea takes care of the babies for up to 6 months and even adopts other baby rheas that have become lost.
Rhea eggs measure about 130 mm × 90 mm (5.1 in × 3.5 in) and weigh 600 g (21 oz) on average; they are thus less than half the size of an ostrich egg. Their shell is greenish-yellow when fresh but soon fades to dull cream when exposed to light. The nest is a simple shallow and wide scrape in a hidden location; males will drag sticks, grass, and leaves in the area surrounding the nest so it resembles a firebreak as wide as their neck can reach. The incubation period is 29–43 days. All the eggs hatch within 36 hours of each other even though the eggs in one nest were laid perhaps as much as two weeks apart.[4]