Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01095:body:0:p17
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01095
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Character Range: 43785–46659

their mates at these times and may rarely overlap with other males. The male and female of a pair spend most of their time together outside the breeding season and hence their ranging behaviour is similar at these times. Stenhouse and Moseby (2023) also found that breeding birds were more sedentary, i.e. moved less per day and hour, had smaller home ranges, did not undertake any long-range movements and remained closer to the mound than non-breeding birds. In contrast, non-breeding home ranges increased sixfold, daily displacement (directional movement) doubled and the average distance to mound increased tenfold. Non-breeding Malleefowl in large native vegetation patches recorded total range lengths of up to 2 km and daily movements of up to 10km. In comparison one bird stayed within a 100ha patch of isolated native vegetation and bred each year for 5 years.

Various anecdotal reports suggest Malleefowl use corridors of relatively thick vegetation when dispersing through open landscapes. These include sightings of single birds (D Martin pers. comm. cited in Benshemesh 2007b; S Dennings & K Vaux pers. comm. cited in Benshemesh 2007b) and pairs (K Willis pers. comm. cited in Benshemesh 2007b) walking along wooded strips of vegetation along roadsides several kilometres from the nearest remnant of native scrub. Similarly, birds have been reported to use strips of dense unburnt vegetation when dispersing through an otherwise burnt landscape (Benshemesh 1992). Malleefowl chicks are capable of dispersing widely almost immediately after emerging from their nests and do not seem confined to particular habitat types. Mean dispersal rates of over 600m per day have been measured for newly hatched chicks in a radio-tracking study, with some chicks averaging over two kilometres per day (Benshemesh 1992). In this study, dispersing chicks readily moved out of the unburnt habitats in which they were released and into recently burnt mallee and open woodlands with little cover. Some chicks settled in small (2–8ha) areas of burnt or unburnt mallee habitat where they found food and at least some unburnt trees for roosting.

While the movements of chicks and their apparent disregard for habitat boundaries may facilitate their dispersal and potential to recolonise patches of habitat, it is possible that recruitment in small reserves may be unsuccessful if chicks attempt to cross cleared land.
3.4.4 Breeding
Malleefowl show little sexual dimorphism and are generally monogamous, probably pairing for life (Frith 1959, Frith 1962b). However, a single case of polygyny has been recorded in which two females laid eggs in separate mounds tended by the same male (Weathers et al. 1990), and there is genetic evidence of extra-pair paternity and of egg-dumping (Cope et al. 2014). Malleefowl tend to breed annually except in drought years (Frith 1959, Booth &