Daintree Rainforest Wildlife photographed at Thylogale by David & Diane Armbrust Australian Brush Turkey Alectura lathami The Brush Turkey is one of Australia's three "mound builders". The others being, the locally found Orange-footed Scrubfowl and the Mallee Fowl in the southern part of the continent. They are solitary in nature and aggressive to each other and to other lesser species. They are bullies!! Unlike the Orange-footed Scrubfowl, Brush Turkeys do not form permanent pair bonds. A successful male, with a good nest location, mates with many different females during the breeding season. By scratching up earth and decaying leaf matter with their powerful legs the male Brush Turkey builds huge incubation mounds which can be four metres in diameter and well over one metre high. They are re-used every year with the dominant bird maintaining the best locality. After copulating with the female he allows her to deposit her eggs in the clutch that he exposes. He then aggressively drives her away and very carefully recovers the eggs with humus. Quite often the eggs that he tends in his mound have been fertilised by another male. He can only hope I guess that some other male is reciprocating with his eggs. Incubation temperature is about 33 degrees Celsius. No parental care is provided to the young who dig themselves from the mound and can fly within the hour of hatching. Large goannas and feral pigs often raid the mounds stealing the eggs and disrupting the incubation temperature. Size 70 Centimetres. Back | Next Copyright © 1998 David & Diane Armbrust Thylogale Nature Refuge AUSTRALIA  Phone/Fax 07 4094 1600 Intl. +617+4094 1600 Contact us ABN 33 708 530 113 All rights reserved    Home u Thylogale u Rainforest u Outback u Half Day u Accommodation u About Us  Bookings u Port Douglas u What to Bring u Wildlife list u Links u Photographs u Testimonials u World Heritage Map u Webmaster u