A TURKEY FOR A DAD

Allow me to introduce this handsome bird, Alec. 

His proper name is Alectura lathami (Australian Brush Turkey) and he checks out the visitors at Shelly Beach near Port Macquarie, NSW.  His Mum and Dad never taught him any lifeskills, in fact, he may have never met them, but he will care for the eggs in his magnificent nest as if they were solid gold.  "Why bother mate? Those chicks will leave home as soon as they hatch."  

Let's find out more about Alec's incubator skills and those very special eggs, prized by dingoes, pythons, goannas and people.

The male Brush Turkey laboriously builds his nest on the ground, 4 - 5 metres in diameter and 1-1.5 metres high, from sticks, leaf litter and soil.  One or more females will lay their eggs in his jealously guarded nest over a 5 month period, with the eggs requiring incubation for 50 days.  He will maintain the temperature of the nest at 33 degrees C (91 F) and the humidity at 99%, checking regularly by testing soil in his beak from test holes in the nest.  When the chick hatches it must struggle unassisted to the top of the nest and immediately begin its independant life of finding food, running, retreating into branches of trees and nest building or egg laying, without any training from Mum or Dad.
The question is, why does it take an American biologist to tell us this about our local bird?.....  Apparently the thick egg-shells have pores that are cone shaped, so that as the chick scratches for more air, the holes dilate and admit more oxygen.
Wow!  Is that good design or good luck?

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Michael Morcombe, 'Field Guide to Australian Birds', 2000, Steve Parish Publishing, Archerfield,    
Reader's Digest 'Complete Book of Australian Birds', 1990, Surry Hills, NSW
Dr. Jobe Martin, biologist
Photo Credit: Tony Sullivan