Leipoa ocellata

Western Plains Zoo supports the captive breeding component of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Malleefowl Conservation Program, by assisting with the captive breeding and rearing of Malleefowl for release in New South Wales. Together with teams from Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, this group has contributed to the National Recovery Plan for Malleefowl in Australia.

WPZ has been an active participant in the Malleefowl program since 1990, when it assisted with incubation and rearing of eggs from wild Malleefowl mounds, to produce chicks for release to Yathong Nature Reserve in western New South Wales. After this initial release, some birds were retained at WPZ to form the first breeding pairs, which would in turn produce chicks for future releases. Chicks hatched and reared at WPZ are released regularly and over 500 chicks have been released. 

Since 2001 a total of 231 Malleefowl bred at the Western Plains Zoo have been released to the wild in two NSW Reserves. In 2005 a project to monitor survival of released malleefowl chicks was undertaken by Charles Sturt University, Griffith Campus. A further 34 chicks were released in Nombinnie Nature Reserve  in October 2006, where Charles Sturt University are continuing their research project.

For more information go to The Malleefowl Preservation Group