Wildlife
Malleefowl are famed for their habit of making huge compost heaps on which the female lays her eggs. The males bury the eggs, to take advantage of the heat from the rotting vegetation for incubation. The males constantly have to check the heap's temperature, adding or removing a covering of sand to regulate it.
Scientific name: Leipoa ocellata
Rank: Species
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Mallee fowl
Mallee fowl chicks are very self-sufficient from the start.
Female mallee fowl lay their eggs in a huge mound of soil and dead leaves. As the pile rots down, the generated heat incubates the eggs. Once hatched, the chick has to dig its way to the surface where it can walk and feed immediately and fly within a day.
Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.
The Malleefowl can be found in a number of locations including: Australia. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
The following habitats are found across the Malleefowl distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Vulnerable
Population trend: Decreasing
Year assessed: 2008
Classified by: IUCN 3.1
The Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata) is a stocky ground-dwelling Australian bird about the size of a domestic chicken (to which it is distantly related). It occupies semi-arid mallee scrub on the fringes of the relatively fertile areas of southern Australia, where it is now reduced to three separate populations: the Murray-Murrumbidgee basin, west of Spencer Gulf along the fringes of the Simpson Desert, and the semi-arid fringe of Western Australia's fertile south-west corner. It belongs to the monotypic genus Leipoa.
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Paternal care
Adapted to flying
Acoustic communication
Monogamous
Moulting
Egg layer
Active at birth
Adapted to running
Territorial