Thermometer chicken
| Thermometer chicken | ||||||||||
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Thermometer chicken ( Leipoa ocellata ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||
| Leipoa | ||||||||||
| Gould , 1840 | ||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||
| Leipoa ocellata | ||||||||||
| Gould , 1840 |
The thermometer hen ( Leipoa ocellata ) is a large footed hen native to Australia with a remarkable hatching method.
features
The thermometer chicken has a head body length of about 60 cm. The male weighs 2 kg, the female 1.5 to 2 kg. It has strong legs and a short, curved beak. The plumage on the head and neck is brown to blue-gray. The top and wings are banded brown and blackish. The color of the belly is dirty white.
Occurrence
The thermometer chicken lives in south-west and south Australia in semi-arid eucalyptus bushes known as " mallee ". To protect its habitat, the Mallee Cliffs National Park was created in southwest New South Wales .
Way of life
The thermometer chicken is a ground-dwelling omnivore whose pairs stay together for several years. Most of the time, the couple only come together during the breeding season.
In the Australian winter, that is from April or May, both partners dig a three meter wide and one meter deep pit, which they fill with plant material that is collected within a radius of up to 50 meters. As soon as the low rainfall has moistened the plant material, the rooster covers it with a layer of sand. The pit stores moisture and the rotting of the plants creates heat. An egg chamber is built at the top of the heap and a brood mound with sand and earth above the pit, which can be up to 1.50 meters high and 4.50 meters wide. Due to putrefactive heat and solar radiation, the temperature inside is around 33 ° C. The rooster is busy with its brood mound for almost ten months a year. Every day for months he checks the temperature with a sensory organ in the beak area and regulates it by adding or removing plant material.
The male guards the heap until the eggs are laid and even drives away the female. In September or October, two to 34 eggs are laid in the incubation chamber at intervals of several days. The chicks hatch after 49 to 96 days and have to work their way out. You are immediately independent; after one day they can fly short distances. The adult birds no longer care for the offspring, which are fully grown after around a year and a half.
Duration
The total number of thermometer chickens is estimated at around 150,000. As their habitats are converted into arable and grazing land, the species is endangered.
Web links
- Leipoa ocellata in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2013. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved on July 3, 2013.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Leipoa ocellata in the Internet Bird Collection
- Birte Löffler: Das Thermometerhuhn, A very special bird ( Memento from March 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Data sheet for Leipoa ocellata at www.iucnredlist.org, accessed on December 24, 2015.