By Chris Thomson | posted on March 30, 2018
RARE birds after which the Shire of Gnowangerup is named are breeding like billyo out Ongerup way.
Manager of Yongergnow Australian Malleefowl Centre Rebecca Brady says that malleefowls Maggie, aged four, and Drei, two, have produced 19 chicks since late last year, and show no signs of stopping.
“After the Christmas break, when we came back we spotted three little chicks in the small aviary, and since then they’ve just been hatching and hatching, and every time we go out there’s been more and more, so the count now is 19,” she says.
“The last time our biologist, Vicki, checked the mound was before the last six chicks hatched. There were five eggs in it and we haven’t checked since then – so there could be more.”
Ms Brady says the 19 feathered newbies were the first chicks produced by their prolific parents.
“Maggie is about four years old,” she says.
“She’s been here a while, and Drei was a chick from the 2015/16 breeding season.
“He’s only two, so we didn’t think it was possible just yet.”
Roughly translated from the local Noongar language, ‘Gnowangerup’, the name of the shire in which the Ongerup-based centre sits, means ‘Place of the malleefowl’.
According to Birdlife Australia, the malleefowl – which ranges from Victoria and South Australia, up to the Northern Territory and through to Western Australia – is vulnerable nationally, and rare and likely to become extinct in WA.
“In the wild, the chick survival rate is only two per cent because they have no parental control or anything,” Ms Brady explains.
“Once their mum lays the eggs, that’s her job done.
“The father then adds dirt or removes dirt to keep the temperature in the mound between 32 and 34 degrees, and when they hatch they need to work their way out of the mound, which could be 1.5m high, all by themselves.”
Ms Brady says that when the chicks hatch they have to walk up to a metre from the mound, making them vulnerable to foxes and feral cats.
It is partly for that reason that an annual fox shoot that has been arranged for the night of April 7 by the local Community Resource Centre, which Ms Brady also manages, is so important.
“We feel like the local farmers are really helpful in realising that foxes are major predators, not just of livestock, but also of malleefowl,” she says.
Yongergnow plans to release malleefowl currently at the centre into mallee country in Gnowangerup Shire and beyond.
“Around northern Ongerup there have been sightings of malleefowl, including a male who had a mound,” Ms Brady says.
“He was unfortunately hit by a car so we’d like to think if we could put another male out there that male could then work on that mound again.”
Ongerup locals looking to participate in the April 7 fox shoot, and free brekky early the next day, can call 9828 2326 for more details.
Photo: Rebecca Brady with Maggie, Drei and the mound where the 19 chicks were born. Credit: Chris Thomson