Bush chicken
| Bush chicken | ||||||||
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Bush chicken, male with swollen throat pouch |
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| Systematics | ||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||
| Alectura | ||||||||
| Latham , 1824 | ||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||
| Alectura lathami | ||||||||
| Gray , 1831 |
The bush chicken ( Alectura lathami ), also known as the Australian talegalla , is a large-footed chicken native to Australia with a turkey-like appearance. It is the only member of the genus Alectura .
The bush chicken is one of the few hen birds that hatch their eggs in large brooding mounds. The hills are scraped together by the males alone. After the chicks hatch, the parent birds no longer care for the brood. After hatching, the chicks are on their own and are neither fed nor guided by the parent birds.
The stock situation of the bush grouse was classified in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2016 as “ Least Concern (LC) ” = “not endangered”.
features
The 60 to 75 cm long grouse has a wingspan of 85 cm and is the largest species of large footed grouse in Australia. The wing length is 30 to 33 centimeters, the tail is 25 to 26 centimeters. Males weigh between 2000 and 2300 grams. The females are slightly lighter and weigh between 1600 and 1900 grams.
The plumage is mostly black-brown, the underside is brown-gray. Feathers in the abdominal region have lighter feathers, so that scaling occurs. The red head and neck are featherless with the exception of a few shaking hair feathers. Further characteristics are the long legs and the laterally flattened tail. The tail plumage consists of 18 feathers, the 5th pair of which is significantly different than the middle one.
The yellow or blue-gray larynx swells in the male during the mating season. This is the only gender dimorphism that is noticeable . Otherwise males and females are colored the same.
Occurrence
The distribution area extends from Queensland south to Sydney . The bush grouse lives in rainforests and in the bush, in the north at higher altitudes and in the south also in lowland areas.
behavior
The bush chicken's flight is slow. It spends the night and the time of the midday heat in the trees. The diet includes invertebrates, but also seeds and fruits. They find their food by scratching the ground in the leaves. However, they also occasionally stand up to eat ripe fruits directly on the tree.
The bush chicken is a gregarious bird and lives in groups that typically consist of a dominant male, several younger males, and different females.
Reproduction
The male scrapes together leaves with his feet into a one meter high pile with a diameter of four meters. These are always erected in the deep shade of the forest. During the construction, the leaves and earth are repeatedly trampled on by the male. From September to March a female lays 16–24 large white eggs in this heap, or several females up to 50 eggs. These are buried 60–80 cm deep at a distance of 20–30 cm with the thick end on top. Incubation heat is given off by the rotting of the leaves. The male regulates the incubation temperature by adding or removing plant material in the range of 33 to 35 ° C.
Immediately after hatching, the chicks have to dig their way out through the pile. They already make use of the typical scraping, in which they reach into the overlying compost leaf, pull it down and slowly get up in the brood mound. Chicks take about 24 to 30 hours to dig their way through the 60 to 70 centimeter thick pile. The chicks leave the brood mound immediately after breaking through the surface of the hill and seek shelter in the nearby bushes. Immediately after hatching, their weight is 112 to 122 grams. In the first few hours after they have freed themselves from the brood mound, they still move insecurely and when moving fast they still balance with their wings. Chicks that have dug their way out of the brood mound within a short period of time usually find each other and then keep in loose contact with each other with contact sounds.
Many young birds fall prey to predators such as lizards and snakes . The eggs are part of the diet of lizards , snails , dingoes and dogs . Often lizards show wounds on the tail that the bush grouse struck while defending their nest.
Grouse and human
The bush chicken is a traditional game of the Australian Aborigines. Eggs of this type are also eaten.
Conflicts
The bush hen is one of the few large foot fowl that has benefited from contact with humans since the beginning of the 20th century. The bush grouse was originally found in Australia in a strip along the coast from New South Wales to northern Queensland . The increasing development of the Australian bushland as agricultural land meant that the bush grouse expanded its range because it quickly opened up new habitats which, through reclamation, offered new food crops. It benefited in particular from the invasive spread of the introduced Opuntia stricta in Queensland and New South Wales in the first decades of the 20th century. In these two Australian states more than 25 million acres were so heavily overgrown with this species of Opuntia that they could no longer be cultivated. The bush grouse not only benefited from this abundant food supply, but also had a reputation for spreading this problematic in Australia Contribute plant species. This led to intensive hunting, which caused the species to decline sharply in numerous areas of its range. The strong spread of Opuntia stricta was finally successfully combated from 1925 with the introduction of the cactus moth in Australia.
There are still conflicts with farmers. Bush chickens are notorious for causing significant damage in plantations of bananas, lychees, and similar fruits. Australian farmers are therefore repeatedly calling for the Australian government to stop programs aimed at systematically poisoning the dingoes . Dingoes are one of the key predators that can prevent further growth in the bush fowl population and thus limit the problems that bush fowl farmers can create.
Grouse also show less and less fear of humans. In some suburbs of today's distribution area, the bush grouse has adapted very well to the living conditions that such suburbs offer. In some cities, such as Noosa in the south of Queensland, they are part of the street scene because they regularly search trash cans for usable items. In Brisbane , the number of bush chickens living in the metropolitan area has increased sevenfold in 20 years and they can also be found increasingly in Sydney. Garden owners are confronted not only with grouse rummaging through gardens in search of something to eat, but also with roosters starting to create breeding mounds in their gardens. Australian government agencies are already publishing advice to garden owners on how to handle the birds in their gardens.
Bush chickens quickly get used to being around people and also look for food in close proximity to their homes. Occasionally they show aggressive behavior towards people and pets that they perceive as a threat. Their defensive behavior includes, among other things, purposefully scratching leaves and soil in the direction of the alleged attacker.
Attitude in Europe
The first European keeper of Australian bush fowl was the London Zoological Garden . He received the first copies of this kind in 1848. Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby , kept several copies in his menagerie at Knowsley Hall from 1851 .
The first breeding succeeded in 1854 in the London Zoo, which was also able to breed successfully in 1860, 1866, 1867 and 1869. In 1870 the Berlin Zoo was the first to acquire bush chickens and in 1871 this pair, which was moved to London, was the first to breed in Germany. More offspring in this zoo came in 1876, 1878 and 1881.
Trivia
The specific epithet lathami honors the British doctor and natural scientist John Latham , who also described the genus for the first time.
literature
- Mark Cocker, David Tipling: Birds and People. Jonathan Cape, London 2013, ISBN 978-0-2240-8174-0 .
- Heinz-Sigurd Raethel : Chicken birds of the world. Natur Verlag, Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 1991, ISBN 3-89440-440-X .
Web links
- Alectura lathami in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed on December 18 of 2008.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings for Alectura lathami in the Internet Bird Collection
Single receipts
- ↑ a b c d e Raethel: Chicken birds of the world . P. 780.
- ↑ Alectura lathami in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2016 Posted by: BirdLife International, 2016. Retrieved on 3 October 2017th
- ↑ Raethel: Chicken Birds of the World . P. 781.
- ↑ a b c Raethel: Chicken Birds of the World . P. 783.
- ^ Tim Low: Feral Future. The untold story of Australia's exotic invaders. Penguin Books Australia, Ringwood 2001, ISBN 0-14-029825-8 . P. 269.
- ^ A b Mark Cocker, David Tipling: Birds and People . P. 33.
- ^ Tim Low: Feral Future. The untold story of Australia's exotic invaders. Penguin Books Australia, Ringwood 2001, ISBN 0-14-029825-8 . P. 270.
- ^ The Courier Mail: Stuff the turkeys, Dingoes need a break . April 5, 2013 , accessed August 28, 2016
- ↑ Mark Cocker, David Tipling: Birds and People . P. 34.
- ↑ ABC News: Brisbane's bush turkey Explosion heads south , accessed August 28, 2016.
- ^ National Parks and Wildlife Service (Australia); Living with Brush Turkey ( Memento from April 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on August 29, 2016
- ↑ Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins: Whose Bird? Men and Women Commemorated in the Common Names of Birds . Christopher Helm, London 2003, p. 205.