| Mallee Fowl |
Article Index for Mallee |
Website Links For Mallee |
Information AboutMallee Fowl |
|
Restricted to the Mallee area of Victoria, Mallee fowl are large, ground-dwelling birds that roost in trees and need sizeable blocks of scrub to survive. If you are fortunate enough to see one of these mysterious birds in the wild, you will hear their distinctive plaintive 'hobble-bobble' call. They derive their food from scratching through the dense local bed of bark and leaf litter and are an endangered species. They are megapodes which means "big feet". They lay their eggs in large mounds of litter, the warmth of the composting plant material is how they incubate their eggs and the size of the mound and thus temperature is closely montiored by the adult pair. At birth the young chicks must struggle up through the litter and are left to fend for themselves. Recent research strongly suggests that different depths in the litter and thus different temperatures determine the sex of the chicks much like alligators or crocodiles. Exactly how this could occur is still a mystery as unlike reptiles, bird eggs already have sex predetermined when they are laid. Mallee fowl are readily observed while lying on one's back and smoking a pipe with fellow mallee fowl enthusiasts. Be sure to spot the magellanic clouds while you're down there |
|
|