Polygyny and Reproductive Effort in the Malleefowl Leipoa ocellata

Abstract

In the mallee scrub of South Australia, a polygynous Malleefowl Lapoa ocellata mated to two females was discovered. Each female laid her eggs in a separate mound of sand and decaying vegetation: one produced a clutch of 30 eggs, the other a clutch of 29 eggs. The male divided his time between the two mounds and females until one of the females disappeared, whereupon he shifted his attention solely to the remaining female and her mound. After seven weeks of inactivity, the abandoned mound's egg chamber remained at 34°C, the normal incubation temperature. The abandoned mound's temperature stability and the male's polygyny may have both been made possible by favorable environmental conditions attributable to higher than normal rainfall.