MALLEE FOWL
( Leipoa ocellata)

Description
The Mallee Fowl is a large sedentary bird. Average size is approximately 600mm in length and weighing approximately 15kg. It is mottled black, brown and white in colour with a white underside and a large black band extending from the neck to the breast.

Conservation Status and Threats
The Mallee Fowls main threat is predation by foxes. In fact, no young have been known to survive in the past three years due to fox predation. This is further exacerbated by the clearing of Mallee scrub for farming and competition for food from sheep, goats and rabbits. Mallee Fowl were rare even at the time of first settlement, but with clearing of land for farming, and the introduction of foxes and cats they became rarer and are listed as an endangered species.

Distribution
Found in Mallee country of inland Southern Australia.

Diet
The Mallee Fowl normally lives without water, but is dependant on Mallee scrub for food. This includes acacia and cassia seeds. After rain they vary their diet by eating such things as herbs, flower blossom, beetles and cockroaches.

Breeding
Mallee Fowl breed once a year commencing in Spring. They return to the nest each year and repair it. The nest is a huge mound made of sand and leaf litter, and the sides are sometimes up to 1.5 metres high and can be 3 metres wide. The centre is dug out and half filled with leaves and bark collected by the male in winter. When it rains, the leaves and bark soak up water and begin to ferment and rot. The temperature then begins to rise. The leaf litter is covered by soil and sand which keeps in the heat of the rotting leaves. When the centre of the mound reaches the correct temperature the female lays her eggs She then covers them with the leaves. In the breeding season, depending on the availability of food, up to 24 eggs can be laid. Generally an egg is laid every 4 to 8 days. The male maintains the temperature to within one degree of its original heat by digging and letting the hot air out regularly. The eggs hatch after 7 or 8 weeks of being laid. The young burrow up to the surface and can fly within 24 hours. If the rain comes late, they may not breed at all.

Mallee Fowl have the same mate for life but are seldom seen together away from the nest as the male must maintain the nest while the female searches for food to sustain her egg production.

A captive breeding group has been established at Western Plains Zoo. This group is used to generate chicks for release by the National Parks and Wildlife Service into areas where foxes are intensively controlled.

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