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La Tour du Valat

Institut de recherche pour la conservation des zones humides méditerranéennes

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Titre :	Behaviour of Australian brush-turkey (Alectura lathami, Galliformes : Megapodiidae) chicks following underground hatching
Auteurs :	A. Goth, Auteur
Type de document :	Article
Dans :	Journal of Ornithology (143(4) OCT 2002)
Article en page(s) :	477-488
Langues:	Anglais
Résumé :	Megapode chicks hatch underground at a depth of between 40 and 150 cm, where external heat sources incubate the eggs. They dig themselves out without assistance from their parents. This is the first detailed study describing how long chicks remain under the soil and how they behave in this environment. 3 1 chicks of the Australian Brush-turkey (Alectura lathami) were observed while buried under a 40 cm high column of soil in a heated, transparent box. It took them, on average, 40 h (median) to reach the surface (range 26-55 h). After hatching, they only moved enough to form a small cavity within the soil in which they remained almost motionless for an average of 16 h (median). During this time, they dried their plumage, lost the chorioallantoic membrane, and presumably aerated their lungs and air sacs. After the initial resting period, for an average of 21 h (median) they dug upwards in short bouts only, traversing merely 8 cm. During this time they kept free a small cavity around themselves, in which they rested, preened and pecked at items in the soil, some of them invertebrates. Chicks covered the greatest distances (median 23 cm) within the last 64-120 min before emerging from the soil, while digging and pushing vigorously towards the surface, almost non-stop. If it is assumed that other, more endangered megapode species behave in a similar manner following hatching, these results Suggest that in captive-release programs, chicks should not be released before the age of approximately 40 h, when they usually leave their natural incubation site. On the basis of these results I also critically discuss the classification of megapodes as 'superprecocial'. The present observations suggest that many aspects of the chicks' behaviour. such as the long resting period after hatching, differ little from other precocial birds.

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