Image courtesy of Tim Pascoe.
Joel Kontinen
Earthen piles built by a chicken-like bird in South Australia aren’t just egg incubators — they may also be crucial for the distribution of key nutrients throughout the ecosystem.
That is what the malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata) does. Like the elephants, they also take care of the environment. In deserts, owls and giant lizards also support plant and animal life with their burrows .
These birds are called “ecosystem engineer. ”
Source:
Buehler, Jake. 2022. How a mound-building bird shapes its Australian ecosystem
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