388 Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities
management experiment that aims to resolve uncertainty about the effectiveness of
predator baiting for malleefowl conservation. In this experiment, additional
monitoring sites are being established on a variety of land tenures in collaboration
with over a dozen land management agencies. The f low of monitoring data from this
experiment, combined with data from other long-term monitoring sites, provides a
valuable opportunity to learn both passively and actively about the responses of
malleefowl to a wide array of environmental factors and management interventions.
Introduction
Malleefowl Leipoa ocellata are fascinating birds renowned for their extraordinary
breeding habits, which involve burying their eggs in large compost and solar
fuelled incubator mounds (Fig. 31.1). Although mounds are constructed and
carefully maintained by the parents, the chicks eventually dig themselves out of the
mound and emerge into a typically hot and dry environment where they fend for
themselves without any parental care (Jones et al. 1985). Malleefowl belong to a
small family of Galliformes known as megapodes (Megapodiidae), which share
some of these breeding traits, but the malleefowl is the only species in the group to
inhabit semi-arid and arid climates. As a result, the species has developed the most
complex and sophisticated incubation structures and behaviours of the family.
Malleefowl are widely but sparsely distributed across the dry eucalypt and
acacia shrublands of southern Australia (Fig. 31.2). Historically, population
Fig. 31.1. Malleefowl build large mounds of composted soil in which they lay their eggs. The birds ‘garden’
the mound to maintain temperatures suitable for incubation. Photo: S. Gillam.