Further to Nick Payne's post, "Mansions in the Mallee" Here's something I
wrote recently for an interstate birders Magazine:
Fire Fighter’s Friend
During September 2009 I heard of an industrious brush turkey in Sydney's
Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park that is helping fire fighters prepare for summer
by scratching out a fire control line around head office buildings in the
park.
Lower Hawkesbury Area Manager, Peter Bergman said the brush turkey is doing a
great job of clearing all potential fire fuel from around half the building in
the process of building its nest.
National Parks &Wildlife personnel were preparing to hazard reduction
burn around the entire building, which requires clearing a line of vegetation,
but now they only need to do half of it because the brush turkey has done a
fantastic job of creating a control line. Its nest is already 2 metres high and
around 3 metres wide- and he’s still going, scratching up any leaf litter he can
find.
Workers are still burning around the other half of the building to ensure
they are protected from any possible summer wildfires, but the brush turkey is a
real fire fighter's friend. However, the bird is just trying to build the
biggest and best nest around so he can attract the best female.
Mr.
Bergman explained that every year, male brush turkeys use vegetation gathered
from the forest floor to build a large and distinctive incubation mound, which
can be up to 4 m wide and up to 2 m high, the female will then lay between 18
and 24 white eggs that are incubated in the mound.
"As the vegetation in
the mound decomposes, it gives off heat between 33 and 35 degrees celsius, which
warms the eggs and the male maintains this temperature by removing and adding
layers to the mound. Temperature regulation is the only assistance parents
provide to their offspring," he said.
The young brush turkeys hatch after
about seven weeks, fully feathered and able to run.
They dig their way
through the layers of the mound and into the open air - and a whole new
generation of fire fighters is born.
John K. Layton.
