About Leipoa ocellata Gould, 1840
The malleefowl, with the scientific name Leipoa ocellata Gould, 1840, is a stocky, ground-dwelling bird native to Australia. It is roughly the size of a domestic chicken, and is distantly related to domestic chickens. This species is well known for the large nesting mounds that males build, and for the fact that adults provide no parental care after the chicks hatch. It is the only living member of the genus Leipoa; the extinct giant malleefowl was a close relative of the malleefowl.
The malleefowl lives in semiarid mallee scrub on the edges of relatively fertile areas in southern Australia. Currently, its range is split into three separate isolated populations: one in the Murray–Murrumbidgee basin, one west of Spencer Gulf along the edges of the Simpson Desert, and one on the semiarid edge of the fertile southwest corner of Western Australia.
