The threat maleo
The size of the egg makes it in attractive source of food for humans and maleo nesting beaches have probably been explotted since man first arrived on Celebes. Unfortunately, however, over-exploitation has been a common phenomenon: for example, the beach at the batuputih just north of the present Tangkoko-Batuangus reserve, where Alfred Wallace watched maleo nesting in 1859, was at one time visited by egg collectors in an apparently more or less sustainable manner, but within six years at a settlement being established at batuputih in 1913, maleos no longer visited the beach (MacKinnon 1978). In 1947 about 10,000 eggs were laid in 2 ha of the panua Reserve on the coast near Marisa, Gorontalo (Uno 1949), but the present total less than 10% of this (Anon. 1982a). the total number of breeding hens is between 25% and 67% of the total 40 years ago (Wiriosoepartho 1980).
The largest site, at bakiriang, is only a few kilometers away from a transmigration site. The lowland forest the birds depend on behind the beach is being felled an unless this is protected the demise of this populatin seems almost certain. The Bakiriang site is so special that, until 50 years ago, the raja of Banggai, on Peleng island 100 km away, determined who should collect the eggs and he received a revenue from the eggs collected. The first 100 eggs were sent to the Raja and only after he had approved these could they be consumed by local people. Although the Banggai Rajas were notorious pirates and unacceptable in many ways, they were among Indonesia’s first resource managers. Now, however, eggs are taken despite legal prohibition and they can be found, wrapped in individual palm-leaf baskets, in the markets of ujung Pandang and even Jakarta.
Experiments by the head of the Gorontalo Forest service in the mid-70s showed that maleo eggs could be collected and reburied in a cage so that predation was avoided, and then hatched with significant rates of success (MacKinnon 1978). This was tried again in the Tangkoko-Batuangus Reserve and a hatching rate of 78% was achieved. This technique, together with the control of pig and lizard predators and the clearing of undergrowth to increase the area with a suitably high soil temperature, could make a significant contribution to increasing maleo populations.
Work is currently being conducted in Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park on the management of an inland of maleo birds and results are awaited with interest.
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