and lay the egg inside. After the egg is laid, the parents bury the egg securely in sand, sometimes covering the sand with other debris to better camouflage the hole. After the egg has been securely buried, the parents leave and never return, leaving the maleo chick to fend for itself. The hot sand of Sulawesi acts as an incubator for maleo eggs, which are warmed with geothermal heat or solar heat. A maleo chick is completely self-sufficient only hours after hatching. For this reason, maleo eggs are approximately five times the size of a domestic chicken's, as they contain nearly full-formed maleos inside. It must dig its way up through the sand immediately after hatching, and subsequently has the ability to fly and feed itself. Current threats and conservation A large number of former nesting sites have been abandoned as a result of egg poaching and land conversion to agriculture. Of the 142 known nesting grounds, only 4 are currently considered non-threatened. The shrinking and fragmentation of forest habitats on the island pose serious threats to the surviving and future populations of the species. Wildfires in 2000 and 2004 cleared large areas of forest and what grew as a result of these fires was not a suitable habitat for the maleo. There has also been increasing isolation between non-breeding habitats and coastal breeding grounds as a result of human urban development. Because of this, mortality risk associated with moving to breeding grounds has drastically increased. Since 1972, this species has been protected by the Indonesian government. As of 2005, it is estimated that only 4,000-7,000 breeding pairs currently exist in the wild and these numbers are rapidly declining. Due to aforementioned threats, current population numbers, and deemed value of the species, the maleo is evaluated as critically endangered the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES. In 2009, US-based Wildlife Conservation Society worked with local government to purchase of Indonesian beach front property where approximately 40 nests are located in an effort to further conservation efforts and protect this bird. Thanks to Alana O'Sullivan, a Senior Keeper of Ornithology, the Bronx Zoo (And recently, the Nashville Zoo), is one of the only places in the world where the maleo exists outside of Indonesia and breeding efforts are currently taking place there as well. A breeding pair of maleos at the Bronx Zoo