THE MALLEE FOWL

The Gnow's (Mallee Fowl) Nest

A Story by G.E.P. Wellard: 'Bushlore"

One day a Yamagee called at the Dalgaranga Homestead and presented me with three Gnow's eggs which he had dug out of an incubation mound that Gnows build in which to incubate their eggs.

Just how long they had been in the mound was anybody's guess, so I did not fancy eating them. The eggs are a good deal bigger than a hen's egg although the bird itself is much the same size as the domestic hen.

The egg is an attractive buff colour.

After wondering what I could do with the eggs, I decided I would make a Gnow's nest of my own and try my luck at hatching out the eggs, but knowing the trouble the cock bird goes to in building the mound and the effort he has to put in to obtain the right temperature over many months, I did not hold out much hope for success for my effort.

Gnows build a large mound of earth which they scratch up with their feet, mainly, but also use their wings in a lesser degree.

The mound is about thirty inches high and twelve or fifteen feet across. After they have made the mound, they scratch out a hole in the centre down to the bottom, and then collect leaves which they place in the hole, until it is about half full.

Then it is a case of having to wait till enough rain falls to wet the leaves properly. As soon as that happens, they scratch back the earth they removed in making the hole over the now wet leaves. This causes them to ferment and the heat generated in this process heats the mound.

The hen bird realises about every four days until she has laid (sic) about thirty-six eggs. it is now time to start laying and from then on she will produce an egg

The heat generated by the rotting leaves does not last very long, so other methods have to be employed to keep the mound at the right temperature. The cock bird takes complete charge of the nest and it is his job to see that the correct temperature is maintained at all times.

Self registering thermometers prove that he can do this for six or even over the whole time. To control the temperature he first has to find up to nine months of the year with only a variation of two degrees out if it is too hot or too cold.

He does this by scratching a little way into the mound and picking up a beakful of the earth from which he can decide if it is too hot.

If it is he spreads the heap out, which allows it to cool. When he decides it has reached the desired temperature he heaps it up again. If the test shows that it is getting too cool, he waits until the sun is well up and shining on the mound.

He then spreads it out and lets the sun do the warming up, rebuilding the mound when the test shows the right temperature has been reached.

Deciding on the location of the nest in the first place is important and it must be placed so that shade will not blot out the heat of the sun when it is necessary to warm the mound. He is very temperature happy. He has to open up the mound so that the hen can lay, but he refuses to open it if he considers the weather unfavourable enough to cause too big a loss of temperature.

That is his side of the story, but the hen also has her problems which is an egg demanding to be laid. If the cockbird refuses to open the mound, which he sometimes does do for several days, the henbird, in desperation, will try to open it herself but while she is busy scratching the earth out, he is just as busy scratching it back, so it becomes a stalemate. When that happens she has no other option, as she can't delay the laying any longer, than to get rid of the egg, so she goes a little way from the mound and scratches a very small hole and lays her egg in that. This egg of course will not hatch.

The mound I decided to make was very small, only about two feet high and two feet wide at the base, made of earth mixed with leaves but no real way was used for creating any heat. The time of the year which was August-September, would be warm but not a blistering heat that would cook the eggs. I made the mound inside the garden fence where I could inspect it daily and placed the three eggs, on end, in it. I knew that if an egg did hatch the chicken would have to dig his way out of the mound, which is the usual practice of Gnows.

I made a daily inspection of the mound for two months and as nothing had happened in that time, I presumed my effort of building a successful incubator had failed so decided I would dig one of the eggs out and open it. The one I broke open was added and had not been fertilised, presumed the other one would probably be the same as they'd been in the mound so long I scratched round and round another egg broke that open and to my amazement and keen disappointment it contained a chicken almost fully fledged and I'm certain it would have hatched out had I given it a few more days was very disappointed and hurriedly covered the mound up again, hoping for success with the one remaining egg I left that egg in the mound for many more weeks, eventually digging it out only to find it had not been fertile.

Although the experiment had been unsuccessful it did prove to me beyond doubt that the Gnow's egg has in some mysterious way the power to delay incubation. The fact that the chick has to remain un hatched until it is ally fledged and also has to be strong enough to dig its way out some thirty inches or more up through the mound to reach the outside world and thus gain its freedom, points to some form of delayed incubation. When it has got that far it must also be sufficiently developed to take care of itself, because, from that stage on, the parent birds have nothing more to do with it and it is completely on its own. The first day or so after it emerges it is extremely exhausted as well it might be, and spends most of the time lying around and resting under whatever cover it can find

It is a mystery to me how it finds enough air while it is fighting its way out of the mound. The continuous opening and closing of the mound every time an egg is laid must work the soil down to a very line tilth which, I would think, must exclude all chances of finding enough air to breathe, especially when working very hard as they must be when lighting their way out of the mound. However get out they do, and also teach themselves what to eat and how to find it and when the time comes how to build another incubating mound and thus keep one of the marvels of nature going,

When I was on the Gnowangerup Road Board, I was conscious of the fact that all the clearing that was taking place would make it hard for the Gnows to exist. I thought it was very important that such a wonderful bird should be given a chance to survive. With this idea in mind and with the aid of a four wheel drive vehicle, I made it my business to find what I thought would be a suitable area to give them this chance. The place I found was in the Mt. Maxwell area which is inland from Bremer Bay and was not only very suitable for Gnows, but was also a wonderful area for flora, I had no hesitation in recommending to the Board that we should apply to have a considerable acreage in that part of the State gazetted as a reserve. The Road Board agreed with my suggestion and in due course, it was gazetted as a Flora and Fauna Reserve.

As is very often the case, as soon as a reserve is declared, so does the pressure start to have it released for private selection. So far unsuccessfully, I am glad to say, but I wonder for how long.

“Bushlore” Published in 1983
 

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References:                 Article:      A Story by G.E.P. Wellard

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