Tongan megapode ruling chief, thus assuring the continued survival of this population." Its natural habitat is tropical moist lowland forests. On Niuafo'ou it is most common on the central caldera. The Tongan megapode, like all megapodes, does not incubate its eggs by sitting on them; instead the species buries them in warm volcanic sands and soil and allows them to develop. On islands in former parts of its range without volcanoes it presumably created mounds of rotting vegetation and laid the eggs there. The young birds are capable of flying immediately after hatching. The Tongan megapode is principally threatened by the same
Megapode was thought to exhibit temperature-dependent sex determination, this was later proven false; temperature does, however, affect embryo mortality and resulting offspring sex ratios. The nonsocial nature of their incubation raises questions as to how the hatchlings come to recognise other members of their species, which is due to imprinting in other members of the order Galliformes. Research suggests an instinctive visual recognition of specific movement patterns is made by the individual species of megapode. Megapode chicks do not have an egg tooth; they use their powerful claws to break out of the egg, and then tunnel their way up to