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The national malleefowl monitoring

effort: citizen scientists, databases

and adaptive management

Joe Benshemesh, Darren M. Southwell, José J. Lahoz-Monfort,

Cindy Hauser, Libby Rumpff, Michael Bode, Tim Burnard,

John Wright and Brendan A. Wintle

Summary

Malleefowl Leipoa ocellata are unique ground-dwelling birds best known for
constructing large mounds in which to incubate their eggs. Distributed sparsely
across the southern half of Australia, populations are threatened by introduced
predators and feral cats, habitat clearing and fragmentation, changed fire regimes
and habitat degradation. Since the early 1990s, a rigorous monitoring program has
been implemented to track the distributional status and trends in malleefowl
breeding activity. The engagement of citizen scientists is pivotal to this monitoring
effort, with all aspects of the monitoring undertaken by volunteers. The malleefowl
monitoring program is currently being expanded to include an adaptive