Science Reporter, NOVEMBER 201641

WHAT can be more beautiful than watching a peacock dancing in all

its glory with its wonderful feathers fully unfurled? The Indian peafowl, commonly known as peacock, is one of the most recognizable and almost universally known birds of the world. In India, the peacock was designated as the National Bird in 1963.

The Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is one of the largest and heaviest species of its family. Scientifi cally, the male is the peacock, the female is the peahen and the chicks are called peachicks. They forage on the ground in small groups called ‘party’ while a family is called ‘bevy’. The Indian peafowl is a resident breeding species that does not undertake any migration across the Indian subcontinent.

Generally the train of the peacock is considered as a tail. However, scientifi cally, the train is not a tail; rather, it is composed of long tail-coverts that cover the true small tail feathers. The train can account for nearly 60% of the total body length of the male. The number of feathers in a train may vary from 150 to 200 plus.

Each feather of the train bears a striking ocellus commonly known as ‘eyespot’. As soon as the breeding season is over, the feathers of the train are shed in large quantities. The villagers collect these feathers for commercial and social purposes. Europe and America were among the famous locations for the export of feathers of the train of the peacock. Nevertheless, for the protection of this species, export has now been prohibited.

The elaborate train of the male is believed to have evolved in response to female a raction. Experts suggest that the train may be an indicator of good

VINAYA KUMAR SETHI & DINESH BHATT

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quality male. For example, according to the handicap theory proposed by Dr. Amotz Zahavi, the train of peacock acts as an honest signal of the male’s fi tness as weak or less fi t males would be disadvantaged by the cost of surviving with such large, a ractive, colourful and conspicuous display.

The ‘courtship dance’ of the peacock consists of the erection of train to form a shimmering fan before the female during the breeding season. Experts propose that a peahen chooses a peacock for mating on the basis of the length of the train and the number of eyespots. The number of eyespots and length of the train increase with the age of the peacock. Thus, these traits may indicate the male’s age and status also.

According to Dr. Roslyn Dakin and Dr. Robert Montgomerie of Queen’s University (Kingston, Canada), peacocks spend 10–15% of their daytime budget displaying their erect trains during the breeding season and most of this activity occurs during the morning and late a ernoon. They also say that an angle of about 45° relative to the sun may allow males to enhance the appearance of their iridescent eyespot feathers. Peachicks and young peahens have also been reported to spread their tail feathers in imitation of the male’s train.

Recently, contrary to common belief, in an interesting and excellent study Dr. Mariko Takahashi and co-workers demonstrated that peahens do not prefer peacocks on the basis of their more elaborate trains. They monitored female mate choice for seven years in the

Indian peafowl keeps distance from humans, but seems less affected by their presence. There exists a close interaction between the Indian peafowl and humans from time immemorial.

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Indian peafowl and found no correlation between male mating success and morphological traits of the train such as number of eyespots, train symmetry and train length. This study was published in Animal Behaviour.

The story does not end here. The conclusion of Dr. Takahashi’s team was challenged by Dr. Adeline Loyau and co-workers. They concluded that the failure to detect evidence of mate choice in one study based on a limited array of traits does not mean that females do not prefer males with more elaborate trains. In a nutshell, the debate on the signifi cance of the peacock’s train is still raging.

Males have been reported to roost (sleep) both solitary and communal while the peahens usually have communal roosting habit. They deliver frequent calls before se ling in the roosting tree.

The Indian peafowl use various types of calls. Their calls are generally described as harsh and unpleasant. The most commonly delivered call sounds like ‘kee-ow’. This is the call that makes the Indian peafowl easy to detect. In forests, the frequent repetition of this call is o en supposed to indicate the presence of a large predator nearby. Males produce a hoot copulation call also which has been believed to a ract additional female mating partners during breeding season.

Distribution and HabitatThe Indian peafowl is native to South Asia and is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It is usually found up to 1800 meter elevation in the outer Himalaya. It has been introduced in many parts of the world such as Mexico, Argentina, Honduras, South Africa, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Columbia, Madagascar, Guyana, Surinam, Mauritius, Bahamas, New Zealand, Indonesia, etc.

It is usually found in open forests and woodlands. It can also be easily seen in man-made habitats such as farmlands, villages and urban areas. This species mostly remains on the ground and undertakes only short fl ight.

Breeding BehaviourThe Indian peafowl lives in small groups for most of the year. However, during breeding season, males become solitary and establish breeding territories known as ‘leks’, which they seem to defend. Males generally have a harem of 2 to 5 females. Males perform their excellent and well-known courtship dance by raising the upper tail-coverts into an arched fan. During courtship dance, the train o en produces a ruffl ing sound.

The peahen usually lays 3 to 6 eggs in a shallow depression in the ground. The average size of the egg is 69.7 x 52.1 mm. Some nest in the tree as well. The peacocks are not good fathers as they do not help the females in rearing the young at all. The incubation period for eggs lasts for 28-30 days. The dull colour plumage of the female makes hard to spot her in the wild and therefore she can raise chicks with less danger. During the night, the small peachicks tuck themselves under the wings of the peahen for safety.

Conservation StatusAccording to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global population size of the Indian peafowl has not been quantifi ed. However, it is reported to have an extremely large range with stable population. This species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable

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under diff erent criteria such as range size, population trend and population size. Hence, it is evaluated as ‘Least Concern’ on the IUCN Red List.

However, the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 provides suffi cient protection to the Indian peafowl and has put it in Schedule I.

Adult peafowl try to escape predators either by running or taking fl ight to tall trees. Nevertheless, due to their large body, long train and bright feathers, predators can easily locate them. The Indian peafowl become target for a range of predators such as mongoose, jungle cats, stray dogs, raccoons, dholes, jackals, leopards, tigers and species of eagles and owls. Humans also hunt them for meat, eggs and feathers.

In agricultural landscapes, death of the Indian peafowl due to consumption of pesticide-treated seeds has also been reported. Apart from this, the loss of habitat as a result of the developmental activities of humans signifi cantly aff ects population size of the Indian peafowl.

Though the Indian peafowl keeps distance from humans, it seems less aff ected by their presence. There exists a close interaction between the Indian peafowl and humans from time immemorial. In some parts of the world, people believe that the feather extract of the Indian peafowl can help in the treatment of bites of some poisonous snakes such as cobra and Russell viper. People use the feathers of the Indian peafowl for decorating their house or temples also.

There are reports indicating crop damage by the Indian peafowl from some parts of the world. Nevertheless, such losses seem to be compensated by the benefi cial pest-eating habit of the Indian peafowl. Sometimes this species is considered as a nuisance due to its loud and harsh screeching.

Dr. Vinaya Kumar Sethi (vinayaksethi@yahoo.co.in) and Prof. Dinesh Bhatt (dineshharidwar@gmail.com) are with the Bird Diversity and Acoustics Laboratory, Department of Zoology & Environmental Science, Gurukula Kangri University, Haridwar, Uttarakhand

Experts propose that a peahen chooses a peacock for mating on the basis of the length of the train and the number of eyespots. The number of eyespots and length of the train increase with the age of the peacock. Thus, these traits may indicate the male’s age and status also.