The Mallee’s Tongue: Terrific Temperature-Telling Talent
| by | Nathaniel Nelson |
The modern inventions and innovations of man can be seen in almost every facet of our lives. The thermometer is one fine example of human ingenuity. Parents are familiar with taking their children’s temperature (sometimes quite frequently). Insert a thermometer, and voilà! Several seconds later, the temperature is displayed as a bar of mercury or electronically, and one can read the temperature with ease. Even as we give homage to these fascinating devices, on occasion we tend to remain blind to the equally fascinating design that has been imprinted on the Earth and its creatures by the Great Designer. Take the mallee fowl, for example. Before man ever even thought of creating the simplest of contraptions, this bird was assessing temperature for its unborn babies. As the apostle Paul put it: “God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty” (1 Corinthians 1:27). Man’s conceptions may be mighty, but God has put them to shame with a bird as simple as the mallee fowl.
The
Outback of Australia is home to this magnificent bird. The hot
temperatures and dry climate do not deter the mallee, though. During its
mating season, the male will create for its partner’s eggs a nest that
has an average circumference of seventy feet, and is over three feet in
height.In order to make its nest, the male must first dig out a hole in early winter. Over the course of the winter, the mallee will begin to place sticks and other brush inside the hole, forming a canopy of litter across the top. As spring begins, the mallee fowl will cover the debris with a layer of sand to allow for fermentation of the litter beneath the surface. The nest will remain in this state until mating season (autumn). At this point, the nest has been thoroughly warmed by the decomposed waste. The male makes a hole in the top of the mound, where the female then lays a single egg. About a week later, the male will make another hole and the female will lay another egg. This process goes on until there are about eighteen eggs in the nest.
But
building a nest is only half the battle. The other half involves
temperature maintenance in the mound. This job, once again, is left to
the male mallee. Several times a day, the male inserts his beak into the
pile of debris and sand. He proceeds to stick out his tongue, which is
such a good thermometer that it can measure a temperature change as
small as 1/10 of a degree! After assessing the temperature, the
male can act accordingly. If the nest is too hot, he can remove some of
the sand that is covering the nest. If the nest becomes too cold, then
the male can insert sticks to produce more heat, and add sand to
insulate the mound from the surroundings. The temperature must be kept
at exactly 33 degrees Celsius, and this medium must be maintained to
within one degree in order for the unborn chicks to survive while still
in the nest.This scenario gives rise to important questions: (1) How did the mallee fowl “know” to pile sticks and other debris inside of the nest in order to moderate temperature? (2) Why (and how) did a temperature-evaluating device arise (in the form of a tongue)? Tough questions—the answers to which lie in the intricate design of this amazing bird that is attributable to the Great Designer.
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