Conservation of maleo bird (Macrocephalon maleo) through egg hatching modification and ex situ management

Abstract

Rusiyantono Y, Tanari M, Mumu MI (2011) Conservation of maleo bird (Macrocephalon maleo) through egg hatching modification and ex situ management. . Over exploitation of maleo bird eggs has become the main problem. In addition, habitat demolition and fragmentation have also caused decrease in maleo bird population. This research aimed to know the effectiveness of hatching pattern to produce maleo breeding, studying breeding pattern of maleo bird through hatching approaches of feed quality and temperature adjustment, and studying maleo bird respond towards caring pattern adjustment by measuring plasticity value. There were two phases in this research. The first phase was hatching by using modified incubator. The other one was the caring of the breeding from the result of hatching through feed pattern management using protein and energy balancing. The results of the research indicated that the hatching success was 65%; however, life endurance of the birds from birth to one month of age was only 40%. Their growth showed sufficiently high increase after passing critical period in their body-weight based on feeding pattern containing 21% of protein that was 64.93 g and 62.59 g for maleo in Lore Lindu National Park (LLNP) and Bangkiriang Wildlife Reserve (BWR), respectively. Their monthly body-weight increase was 33.06 g in average of feeding pattern containing 13% of protein for LLNP maleo birds and 36.99 g for the maleo in BWR. It was found that feeding pattern containing higher content of protein (21%) promoted significant increase in the body-weight of maleo birds. Feeding such birds with high protein content feed along with sufficient energy triggered their growth speed. Based on the findings, it was concluded that maleo birds could be preserved by way of hatching, while the birds could be fed with feed containing high protein and energy in order to accelerate their growth after hatching.

Artificial incubation of Maleo Macrocephalon maleo eggs at the Bronx Zoo/Wildlife Conservation Society, New York

“…An alternative successful method consists of placing the eggs in an incubator without substrate, similar to the regular incubation of avian eggs, but without turning the eggs during incubation. This has been carried out previously with the Wattled brush‐turkey (Manik et al ., ) and Maleo (Rusiyantono et al ., ).…”

“…Furthermore, the rack system was not ideal as it interfered with the hatching process. A similar approach was used at Tadulako University, Indonesia, where 30 eggs were incubated without substrate in a forced‐air incubator at 34°C and 71% RH, obtaining a 67·5% successful hatching rate (Rusiyantono et al ., ).…”

Predicting the Growth Curve of Body Weight in Maleo Birds (Macrocephalon Maleo)

“…Hence, the breeding in Maleo birds can be assessed at about 8 to 11 months of age. Maleo included of monogamy birds that first egg production reached at 20 to 24 months with egg incubation along 53-63 days [18]. So, reproductive period of the Maleo birds was long and rarely in their nature wild.…”

Health status assessment of Maleo Bird (Macrocephalon maleo) nesting ground at Kadidia Village, Lore Lindu National Park

“…In general, the Maleo bird population declined due to the high illegal hunting of Maleo eggs [2], predator threats [3], and habitat damage and fragmentation 7 [4]. These conditions led the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to include the Maleo as a threatened species.…”