A surprising agricultural enterprise is underway in Australia’s lush southeastern forests, but the farmers don’t wear overalls or drive tractors. Instead, they sport magnificent tail feathers and are better known for their extraordinary vocal mimicry than their farming prowess.
Scientists from La Trobe University have discovered that the superb lyrebird—an iconic Australian ground-dwelling bird—is actively “farming” its invertebrate prey by creating specialized microhabitats that boost both the diversity and biomass of the creatures it feeds on.
“Lyrebirds set up the perfect home for their prey, creating conditions with more food resources and effectively fattening them up before eating them,” said lead researcher Dr. Alex Maisey of La Trobe University.
The study, published March 5 in the Journal of Animal Ecology, reveals a sophisticated ecological relationship that operates at a scale unmatched by any other non-human vertebrate. Through their constant foraging activities, lyrebirds move an estimated 155 tonnes of soil and leaf litter per hectare annually—a massive ecosystem engineering project that spans millions of hectares across Australia’s moist eucalypt forests.
To test their farming hypothesis, researchers established an elegant experiment using three distinct treatments: areas where lyrebirds were excluded by fencing, fenced areas where researchers simulated lyrebird foraging by hand-raking, and unfenced areas where lyrebirds could forage naturally.
The results were striking. In plots where researchers mimicked lyrebird foraging through raking, the biomass of invertebrates increased by approximately 52% over two years. Meanwhile, in untouched control plots, invertebrate biomass increased by just 3% over the same period. The diversity of invertebrate species also increased significantly in the raked plots compared to the controls.
This pattern creates what scientists call a “positive feedback loop”—the birds’ foraging behavior enhances the very food resources they depend on, functioning similarly to how human farmers cultivate their crops.
Dr. Maisey noted that this type of animal farming “was rarely seen in nature,” making the lyrebird’s behavior particularly significant. The research team’s findings suggest that these birds are not merely disturbing the forest floor while hunting, but actively creating beneficial conditions for their prey.
The birds’ farming technique is surprisingly sophisticated. When lyrebirds rake through leaf litter and soil, they create a complex mosaic of microhabitats: freshly exposed mineral soil, complex mounds of mixed litter and soil, and patches of intact leaf litter. This varied landscape provides niches for different invertebrate species, increasing overall biodiversity.
Additionally, the foraging action makes the soil less compact, improving aeration and creating more pore space for invertebrates to inhabit. The birds also mix and bury leaf litter in the soil, which increases the surface area available for decomposition and boosts the productivity of detritivores and microbial communities—essentially fertilizing their invertebrate farm.
While the experiment showed that lyrebirds do consume some of their cultivated invertebrates, their farming practices generate enough new biomass to offset their predation, creating a sustainable system. Amphipods—small crustaceans that researchers identified as a favorite prey item—showed particularly strong responses to the birds’ soil engineering.
The scale of this farming operation is what truly sets it apart. Unlike other known animal farmers—such as fungus-cultivating ants or termites that operate in relatively small, localized colonies—lyrebirds influence forest ecosystems across approximately 17 million hectares of eastern Australia.
“Lyrebirds are widespread and active across millions of hectares of forest. Their farming actions play an important role in maintaining forest biodiversity,” Dr. Maisey explained.
The implications extend far beyond just the lyrebirds and their invertebrate prey. By increasing invertebrate abundance and diversity, lyrebirds likely benefit many other forest species, including ground-foraging birds, reptiles, and small mammals that feed on invertebrates.
The research also revealed another unexpected ecological service: lyrebirds “lower the intensity of bushfires by burying leaves and branches that fuel fires, thereby shaping whole ecosystems,” according to Dr. Maisey.
This fire-mitigation effect could be particularly significant in Australian forests where wildfires have devastated large areas in recent years. By reducing surface fuel loads through their constant turning of the soil, lyrebirds may help create more fire-resistant landscapes.
Interestingly, the study found that the composition of invertebrate communities was significantly influenced by lyrebird predation but not by their engineering activities alone. This suggests that the birds are selective in their feeding, perhaps targeting larger or more mobile invertebrates that are easier to detect when disturbed.
The research represents a significant step forward in understanding ecosystem engineering—a process where organisms physically modify their environment in ways that create, maintain, or destroy habitats for other species. While ecosystem engineers have been documented in various contexts, examples of positive feedback loops where the engineer benefits directly from its activities through increased food resources are relatively rare.
As forests in southeastern Australia continue to face pressures from climate change, land-use shifts, and increased fire frequency, understanding the ecological roles of native species like the superb lyrebird becomes increasingly important. Their farming activities may be key to maintaining the resilience and biodiversity of these threatened ecosystems.
For the average forest visitor, the sight of a lyrebird scratching through leaf litter now takes on new meaning—it’s not just foraging, but farming on a forest-wide scale, a sophisticated agricultural system that has likely been operating for thousands of years before humans noticed it was happening.