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Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodges |
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AUSTRALIAN BRUSH-TURKEY:
Alectura lathami 70 cm
The Australian Brush-turkey is one of three
megapodes in Australia.
The family
name refers to the robust feet of all species.
It is a large, black
turkey-like bird. The head is red head and the neck yellow, and these
regions are featherless, giving it a vulture-like appearance. The tail is
unusual in that it spreads in a vertical plane, and it is thus used as a
signalling device to other birds and animals.
(Damon
Ramsey BSc.(Zool) Biologist Guide)
Brush-turkeys eat various foods that they find in
the leaf litter, including fallen fruits.
They
may become abundant and quite unwary where humans provide easy pickings.
For protection, birds form roosting groups in trees
both at night and during the day. These birds are most common
in upland rainforest, above 300m.
They are observed readily round
Chambers Wildlife
Rainforest Lodge
and in the nearby Lake Eacham picnic area. In such situations, aggressive rivalry between adult males is
observed frequently.
Nesting Mounds and Breeding:
The nest is a large incubator mound that generates
heat through the decay of moist organic material.
A typical mound is a metre tall and 4-5 metres
diameter and is maintained for up to nine
months
by the male each nesting season.
In prime rainforest habitat, there is about one mound per hectare.
Sites tend to be traditional but new mounds are constructed each season.
It
seems that females choose their mates according to how well they build and look
after their mounds, inspecting all males in the area and observing their
behaviour before making their choice.
They also probe the mound to test its
temperature and other properties.
The owner of a good mound may find females
queuing up to lay their eggs in his care.
A female will usually remain with her
chosen partner for 3-6 weeks, laying eggs in his mound before moving on to
another male, with a fresher mound, to start again.
(Source: Department of Environment)
The mound temperature is about 33 degrees, held
constant by changes to its structure, such as opening or raking it to release
excess heat.
Ventilation of the
mound probably also releases gases that may be lethal to embryos.
It is believed
that the male is able to take the temperature of the mound using temperature
receptors somewhere on his body.
It has been suggested that he uses the bare
skin on either his head, feet, bill or neck sac although no studies have
confirmed these possibilities.
More than one female may lay in the male’s mound
so it normally produces a large number of young each season.
Brush Turkey females may lay up to three times their own weight in eggs in one
breeding season (May-February), but this varies; none may be laid in bad years.
Mating is entirely promiscuous, so each female also
lays in more than one mound.
The large egg (each weighing 180g) enables the hatching of a relatively
advanced chick.
This chick claws
its way to the surface, which takes about one day.
It immediately begins to search for food, unaided by the parents. The
booming of the male Australian brush turkey - made by inflating the wattle (skin
of its neck) with air - is used not only in aggressive male-to-male encounters
but also to advertise the location of his mound to potentially visiting females.
(Source:
Environmental Protection Agency) |
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Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodges |
