G'Day all
Today we found two active Malleefowl mounds at Brookfield Conservation
Park. One of these was located where no mounds have been seen for about
25 years. And at Bakara Conservation Park which is about 40 km south of
Brookfield, there were six separate recently scratched over mounds in
different parts of the reserve several weeks ago. Both these Parks are
about one hour drive from Adelaide.
In most of the larger mallee reserves throughout the Riverland to the
South-East of South Australia, near Kingston (Mt. Scott CP.), Malleefowl
seem to be surviving reasonably well by comparison to populations that
were evident 30 years ago. The understory condition throughout the
area seems to be improving rapidly due to the calici virus kill of
rabbits.
The main threat to Malleefowl in these Reserves is uncontrolled fire
that can destroy their entire island of habitat. And the increasing
density of the understory is also resulting in increased fuel loads, so
without careful management, better habitat may be a double edged sword
for poor old Malleefowl.
Regards
Ian and Pat May
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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