Short Feature
MEETA KUMARI
Rendezvous
with the
Peacock
An avid observer describes her experiences with
and interesting facts about our national bird.
M
Y first encounter with the peacock species began in
Ahmedabad. I was at the Department of Space Housing
Colony at Vikramnagar in Ahmedabad, where I saw a
group of peafowl. At first, it was very hard to get close to Pavo
cristatus, that is what they are known as in scientific parlance.
They just used to run away.
Then I started to explore them in the ‘wild’ places inside the
colony. There is a nursery in Vikramnagar that is a little dense like
a jungle where the Pavo reside. The vegetation in Vikramnagar
includes green tea, fruit trees (like Mango and Fig), Tulsi, Hibiscus
(Hibiscus rosa chinensis), variety of roses, lotus and adusa. I started
to visit this place regularly. Slowly Pavo too started to get friendly
with me and my adventure began. From finding it difficult to take
even a single photograph of them, now I have a collection of
photographs of my new friends.
Pavo usually lives in wilder areas; however, a few live close to
human habitations. In the wild, peafowl live in small family
groups,consisting of one male and several females. Peafowl
forage on the ground in small groups, known as “ musters”, that
usually have a peacock and three to five hens. After the breeding
season, the flocks tend to be made up only of females and the
young.
They prefer to remain in the open early in the mornings but
stay in cover during the heat of the day. They are fond of ‘dustbathing’ and at dusk a muster walks in single file to its favourite
waterhole to drink. When disturbed, they usually escape by running
and rarely take flight. Peafowl are crepuscular (active during the
day) and roost in the trees at night. They make shallow nests and
locate them in the undergrowth of the forest.
Pavo cristatus are omnivorous. The Indian peafowl do most
of their foraging in the early morning and shortly before sunset.
Wild Pavo eat leeches, brown toad, snakes (mostly cobra), worms,
millipedes, berries, flowers, mango, figs, bananas, etc. The
captive ones also feed on popcorn, roti, flowers, and even human
excreta. Wild ones are also found in neighbouring countries like
Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Wild peafowl live about eighteen years.
These birds are usually friendly, but may also be brutal (as in the
SCIENCE REPORTER, JUNE 2012
dense forests of Sri Lanka). The peahen is drab (brown and grey)
in colour in comparison to the peacock; on their neck they have
a short patch of green and the rest is white. Besides, the peacock
has a glistening blue neck, which makes it more attractive.
Peahens have shorter necks than peacocks and they have
different voices (as the windpipe of peahen is smaller than that of
the peacock). Peafowl produce loud calls especially in the
breeding season. They may call at night when alarmed and
neighbouring birds may call in a relay like series. Nearly seven
different call variants have been identified in the peacocks apart
from six alarm calls that are commonly produced by both the
sexes.
In the rainy season, males dance to attract their mates. I
have observed them howl at the onset of clouds and open their
feathers (morpankhs). This dance is also a sign of fear of enemies
or intruders. Once I came upon a peahen giving warmth to its
eggs. As I went closer to the bushes to see better, the peahen
stood up and ran up to a distance of five metres from its nest and
started dancing, perhaps an angry gesture asking me to leave
its eggs alone. I left the place and went to a distance farther; the
peahen returned and sat above the eggs in her nest.
A Dancing Peacock
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Short Feature
A Dancing Peahen
Peahen Eggs
Peacocks prefer to remain in the open
early in the mornings but stay in cover
during the heat of the day.
Increasing urbanization is pushing the peacocks to the fringes.
Both the species of peafowl are believed to be polygamous.
However, it has been suggested that females entering a male
Green peafowl’s territory are really his own juvenile or sub-adult
young and that Green peafowls are really monogamous in the
wild. The male peacock spreads his feathers when he is trying to
get the female’s attention. Many studies have suggested that the
quality of the mail’s train is an honest signal of the condition of
males. The peahens select males on the basis of their plumage.
More recent studies, however, suggest that other cues may be
involved in mate selection by peahens. Males (peacock) display
their colourful feather tails to attract females. However, as often
observed, peacock spread their wonderful feathers even when
no hens are around.
While they mate at night, they rest on a bed of straw. Leeches
and millipedes are also seen in the morning in their bed. Millipedes
feed on yolk sap left in their eggs after they are hatched. The nest
is made on the ground by digging the soil and is stuffed with
straw. The soil becomes muddy and marshy; and the birds’ dung
is also mixed with it. Peacock dung smells like the snake’s skin and
insects, birds and dogs feed on it.
A Pavo cristatus egg takes 28 days to hatch. The peahen
lays one egg in one day. Wild species have six-seven eggs in one
clutch. After hatching, the peahen takes its young ones under its
feathers in the nest built on large trees. A new chick needs a
natural environment to grow healthy.
Conservation of Peacocks
The Indian Peafowl is categorized as ‘Least Concerned’ in the
International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List.
However, in India this species was declared a ‘National Bird’ in
1963 and has been provided utmost protection by including it in
Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Act, 1972.
Though this charismatic species is not
considered
under
potentially
threatened category as of now, it should
be ensured that it might not be included
in any such class in the future.
Threats to Indian Peafowl include
habitat loss, increasing demand for their
“Eyes” of Morpankh
feathers and meat, sickness or death
by consumption of chemical fertilizers
and pesticides, poisoning by farmers to prevent damage to the
crops and hunting them for their eggs and fat extracts (which are
believed to be of medicinal importance). A news item published
in The Times of India dated 14 July 2011 described how a habitat
of peafowl near villages of Greater Noida has met with a sad
end due to rapid construction activities and increased human
interference.
It is, therefore, imperative to understand the changes in
habitat and population status of these birds on a constant basis.
As reported by K. Ramesh and P. McGowan (2009) the
conservation priorities required include a) Mapping the habitat
and distribution of peafowls throughout the country, b) Temporal
analysis of change in their habitat, and c) Identification of ‘highrisk areas’ and potential sites for their conservation.
Increasing urbanization has already pushed peacocks to
the fringes. If we want our future generations to savour the beauty
of this magnificent bird, we will have to protect and conserve
their habitat.
Ms Meeta Kumari enjoys exploring nature. Address: A-2/11, Department of
Space Colony, Ahmedabad-380056, Gujarat; Email: [email protected]
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SCIENCE REPORTER, JUNE 2012