Peafowl

Peafowl
Temporal range: 3–0 Ma
↓

PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K PN
g
Late Pliocene – Recent

Indian peacock displaying. The elongated

upper tail coverts make up the train of the
Indian peacock.

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Galliformes
Family: Phasianidae

Subfamily: Phasianinae

Species

Pavo cristatus
Pavo muticus
Afropavo congensis

The peafowl include three species of

birds in the genera Pavo and Afropavo of
the Phasianidae family, the pheasants
and their allies. There are two Asiatic
species: the blue or Indian peafowl
originally of the Indian subcontinent; and
the green peafowl of Southeast Asia; and
one African species, the Congo peafowl,
native only to the Congo Basin. Male
peafowl are known for their piercing call
and their extravagant plumage. The latter
is especially prominent in the Asiatic
species, who have an eye-spotted "tail" or
"train" of covert feathers which they
display as part of a courtship ritual. The
term peacock is properly reserved for the
male; the female is known as a peahen,
and the immature offspring are
sometimes called peachicks.[1]

The functions of the elaborate iridescent

coloration and large "train" of peacocks
have been the subject of extensive
scientific debate. Charles Darwin
suggested they served to attract females,
and the showy features of the males had
evolved by sexual selection. More
recently, Amotz Zahavi proposed in his
handicap theory that these features
acted as honest signals of the males'
fitness, since less fit males would be
disadvantaged by the difficulty of
surviving with such large and
conspicuous structures.

Plumage

Head
A leucistic Indian peacock

Play media
Video analysis of the mechanisms behind the
display

The Indian peacock has iridescent blue

and green plumage, mostly metallic blue
and green. But the green peacock has
green and bronze body feathers. In both
species females are as big as males but
lack the train and the head ornament.[2]
The peacock "tail," known as a "train,"
consists not of tail quill feathers, but
highly elongated upper tail coverts.
These feathers are marked with
eyespots, best seen when a peacock
fans his tail. Both sexes of all species
have a crest atop the head. The Indian
peahen has a mixture of dull grey, brown,
and green in her plumage. The female
also displays her plumage to ward off
female competition or signal danger to
her young.

The green peafowl differs from the Indian

peafowl in that the male has green and
gold plumage and black wings with a
sheen of blue. Unlike the Indian peafowl,
the green peahen is similar to the male,
only having shorter upper tail coverts, a
more coppery neck, and overall less
iridescence.

The Congo peacock male does not

display his covert feathers, but uses his
actual tail feathers during courtship
displays. These feathers are much
shorter than those of the Indian and
green species, and the ocelli are much
less pronounced. Females of the Indian
and African species are dull grey and/or
brown.
Chicks of both sexes in all the species
are cryptically coloured. They vary
between yellow and tawny, usually with
patches of darker brown or light tan and
"dirty white" ivory.

Occasionally, peafowl appear with white

plumage. Although albino peafowl do
exist, this is quite rare, and almost all
white peafowl are not, in fact, albinos;
they have a different condition called
leucism, which causes an overall
reduction in different types of pigment.
This can result in the complete lack of
coloration of their plumage, while
preserving normal eye colour. By
contrast, true albino peafowl have a
complete lack of melanin, resulting in the
albino's characteristic red or pink eyes.
Leucistic peachicks are born yellow and
become fully white as they mature.

Iridescence

As with many birds, vibrant iridescent

plumage colours are not primarily
pigments, but structural colouration.
Optical interference Bragg reflections
based on regular, periodic nanostructures
of the barbules (fiber-like components) of
the feathers produce the peacock's
colours. Slight changes to the spacing of
these barbules result in different colours.
Brown feathers are a mixture of red and
blue: one colour is created by the
periodic structure and the other is
created by a Fabry–Pérot interference
peak from reflections from the outer and
inner boundaries. Such structural
coloration causes the iridescence of the
peacock's hues. Interference effects
depend on light angle rather than actual
pigments.[3]

Evolution and sexual

selection

Charles Darwin suggested in On the

Origin of Species that the peafowl's
plumage had evolved through sexual
selection. He expanded upon this in his
second book, The Descent of Man and
Selection in Relation to Sex.

The sexual struggle is of two

kinds; in the one it is between
individuals of the same sex,
generally the males, in orde r to
drive away or kill their rivals,
the females remaining passive;
whilst in the other, the struggle
is likewise between the
individuals of the same sex, in
order to excite or charm those
of the opposite sex, gener ally
the females, which no longer
 remain passive, but select the
more agreeable partners. [4]

Sexual selection is the ability of male and

female organisms to exert selective
forces on each other with regard to
mating activity.[5] The strongest driver of
sexual selection is gamete size. In
general, eggs are bigger than sperm and
females produce fewer gametes than
males. This leads to eggs being a bigger
investment, and therefore to females
being choosy about the traits that will be
passed on to her offspring by males. The
peahen's reproductive success and the
likelihood of survival of her chicks is
partly dependent on the genotype of the
mate.[6] Females generally have more to
lose when mating with an inferior male
due to her gametes being more costly
than the male's.

Female choice

Peacock (seen from behind) displaying to attract

peahen in foreground

Multiple hypotheses attempt to explain

the evolution of female choice. Some of
these suggest direct benefits to females,
such as protection, shelter, or nuptial
gifts that sway the female's choice of
mate. Another hypothesis is that females
choose mates with good genes. Males
with more exaggerated secondary sexual
characteristics, such as bigger, brighter
peacock trains, tend to have better genes
in the peahen's eyes.[7] These better
genes will directly benefit her offspring,
as well as her fitness and reproductive
success. Runaway selection also seeks
to clarify the evolution of the peacock's
train. In runaway sexual selection, linked
genes in males and females code for
sexually dimorphic traits in males, and
preference for those traits in females.[8]
The close spatial association of alleles
for loci involved in the train in males, and
for preference for more exuberant trains
in females, on the chromosome (linkage
disequilibrium) causes a positive
feedback loop that exaggerates both the
male traits and the female preferences.
Another hypothesis is sensory bias, in
which females have a preference for a
trait in a non-mating context that
becomes transferred to mating. Multiple
causality for the evolution of female
choice is also possible.

Work concerning female behaviour in

many species of animals has sought to
confirm Darwin's basic idea of female
preference for males with certain
characteristics as a major force in the
evolution of species.[9] Females have
often been shown to distinguish small
differences among potential mates, and
to prefer mating with individuals bearing
the most exaggerated characters.[10] In
some cases, those males have been
shown to be more healthy and vigorous,
suggesting that the ornaments serve as
markers indicating the males' abilities to
survive and, thus, their genetic qualities.

The peacock's train and iridescent

plumage are perhaps the best-known
example of traits believed to have arisen
through sexual selection, though with
some controversy.[11] Male peafowl erect
their trains to form a shimmering fan in
their display to females. Marion Petrie
tested whether or not these displays
signalled a male's genetic quality by
studying a feral population of peafowl in
Whipsnade Wildlife Park in southern
England. The number of eyespots in the
train predicted a male's mating success.
She was able to manipulate this success
by cutting the eyespots off some of the
males' tails:[12] females lost interest in
pruned males and became attracted to
untrimmed ones. Males with fewer
eyespots, and thus with lower mating
success, suffered from greater
predation.[13] She allowed females to
mate with males with differing numbers
of eyespots, and reared the offspring in a
communal incubator to control for
differences in maternal care. Chicks
fathered by more ornamented males
weighed more than those fathered by
less ornamented males, an attribute
generally associated with better survival
rate in birds. These chicks were released
into the park and recaptured one year
later. Those with heavily ornamented
feathers were better able to avoid
predators and survive in natural
conditions.[9] Thus, Petrie's work has
shown correlations between tail
ornamentation, mating success, and
increased survival ability in both the
ornamented males and their offspring.

A peacock in flight: Zahavi argued that the long train

would be a handicap

Furthermore, peafowl and their sexual

characteristics have been used in the
discussion of the causes for sexual
traits. Amotz Zahavi used the excessive
tail plumes of male peafowls as evidence
for his "Handicap Principle".[14] Since
these trains are likely to be deleterious to
the survival of an individual (as the
brilliant plumes are visible to predators
and the longer plumes make escape
from danger more difficult), Zahavi
argued that only the fittest males could
survive the handicap of a large train.
Thus, a brilliant train serves as an honest
indicator for females that these highly
ornamented males are good at surviving
for other reasons, and are therefore
preferable mates.[15] This theory may be
contrasted with Ronald Fisher's theory
(and Darwin's hypothesis) that male
sexual traits are the result of initially
arbitrary aesthetic selection by females.

In contrast to Petrie's findings, a seven-

year Japanese study of free-ranging
peafowl concluded that female peafowl
do not select mates solely on the basis
of their trains. Mariko Takahashi found
no evidence that peahens preferred
peacocks with more elaborate trains
(such as with more eyespots), a more
symmetrical arrangement, or a greater
length.[16] Takahashi determined that the
peacock's train was not the universal
target of female mate choice, showed
little variance across male populations,
and did not correlate with male
physiological condition. Adeline Loyau
and her colleagues responded that
alternative and possibly central
explanations for these results had been
overlooked.[17] They concluded that
female choice might indeed vary in
different ecological conditions.

Food courtship theory

Merle Jacobs' food-courtship theory

states that peahens are attracted to
peacocks for the resemblance of their
eye spots to blue berries.[18]

Natural selection

It has been suggested that a peacock's

train, loud call, and fearless behaviour
have been formed by natural selection
(not sexual selection), and served as an
aposematic display to intimidate
predators and rivals.[19]
Plumage colours as attractants

Eyespot on a peacock's train feather

A peacock's copulation success rate

depends on the colours of his eyespots
(ocelli) and the angle at which they are
displayed. The angle at which the ocelli
are displayed during courtship is more
important in a peahen's choice of males
than train size or number of ocelli.[20]
Peahens pay careful attention to the
different parts of a peacock's train during
his display. The lower train is usually
evaluated during close-up courtship,
while the upper train is more of a long-
distance attraction signal. Actions such
as train rattling and wing shaking also
kept the peahens' attention.[21]

Redundant signal hypothesis

Although an intricate display catches a

peahen's attention, the redundant signal
hypothesis also plays a crucial role in
keeping this attention on the peacock's
display. The redundant signal hypothesis
explains that whilst each signal that a
male projects is about the same quality,
the addition of multiple signals enhances
the reliability of that mate. This idea also
suggests that the success of multiple
signalling is not only due to the
repetitiveness of the signal, but also of
multiple receivers of the signal. In the
peacock species, males congregate a
communal display during breeding
season and the peahens observe.
Peacocks first defend their territory
through intra-sexual behaviour, defending
their areas from intruders. They fight for
areas within the congregation to display
a strong front for the peahens. Central
positions are usually taken by older,
dominant males, which influences
mating success. Certain morphological
and behavioural traits come in to play
during inter and intra-sexual selection,
which include train length for territory
acquisition and visual and vocal displays
involved in mate choice by peahens.[22]

Vocalization

Pavo cristatus vocalization

Problems playing this file? See media

help.

In courtship, vocalisation stands to be a

primary way for peacocks to attract
peahens. Some studies suggest that the
intricacy of the "song" produced by
displaying peacocks proved to be
impressive to peafowl. Singing in
peacocks usually occurs just before, just
after, or sometimes during copulation.[23]

Behaviour

A green peafowl (Pavo muticus)

Peacock sitting.
Peafowl are forest birds that nest on the
ground, but roost in trees. They are
terrestrial feeders. All species of peafowl
are believed to be polygamous. In
common with other members of the
Galliformes, the males possess
metatarsal spurs or "thorns" on their legs
used during intraspecific territorial fights
with other members of their kind.

Diet
Peafowl are omnivores and eat mostly
plant parts, flower petals, seed heads,
insects and other arthropods, reptiles,
and amphibians. Wild peafowl look for
their food scratching around in leaf litter
either early in the morning or at dusk.
They retreat to the shade and security of
the woods for the hottest portion of the
day. These birds are not picky and will
eat almost anything they can fit in their
beak and digest. They actively hunt
insects like ants, crickets and termites;
millipedes; and other arthropods and
small mammals.[24] Indian peafowl also
eat small snakes.[25]

Domesticated peafowl may also eat

bread and cracked grain such as oats
and corn, cheese, cooked rice and
sometimes cat food. It is noticed by
keepers that Peafowl enjoy protein rich
food including larvae that infest
granaries, different kinds of meat and
fruit, as well as vegetables including dark
leafy greens, broccoli, carrots, beans,
beets, and peas.[26]

Cultural significance

A peacock in a flask, "representing the stage in the

alchemical process when the substance breaks out
into many colours", [27] from the Splendor Solis
(1582)
Indian peafowl

The peafowl is native to India, while also

displaying significance in its culture. In
Hinduism, the Indian peacock is the
mount of the God of war, Lord
Kartikeya.[28] During a war with Asuras,
Karthikeya split the demon king
Surapadman in half. Out of respect for
his adversaries prowess in battle, the
God converted the two halves as an
integral part of himself. One half became
a peacock serving as his mount, and
another a rooster adorning his flag. The
peacock displays the divine shape of
Omkara when it spreads its magnificent
plumes into a full-blown circular form.[29]
Peacock feathers also adorn the crest of
Lord Krishna, an avatar of Lord Vishnu,
one of the trimurti.

Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the

Mauryan Empire, was born an orphan
and raised by a family farming peacocks.
When establishing his empire with the
aid of Chanakya, Chandragupta ascribed
its name as Maurya (मौय), translating to
peacocks. After conquering the Nanda
Empire and defeating the Seleucid
Empire, Chandragupta established the
uncontested power of its time. It's royal
emblem remained the peacock until
Emperor Ashoka changed it to Lions, as
seen in the Lion Capital of Ashoka, as
well in his edicts. The peacocks
significance of elegance and royalty
pertained in India during medieval times,
as it was the Mughal seat of power
called the Peacock Throne.

In the Burmese and Sinhalese zodiacs,

the peacock is represented in both of
their cultures. To the Sinhalese people,
the peacock is the third animal of the
zodiac of Sri Lanka.[30]

Peacocks (often a symbol of pride and

vanity) were believed to deliberately
consume poisonous substances in order
to become immune to them, as well as to
make the colours of their resplendent
plumage all the more vibrant - seeing as
so many poisonous flora and fauna are
so colorful due to aposematism, this idea
appears to have merit. The Buddhist
deity Mahamayuri is depicted seated on
a peacock. Peacocks are seen
supporting the throne of Amitabha, the
ruby red sunset coloured archetypal
Buddha of Infinite Light.

In Persia and Babylonia, the peacock is

seen as a guardian to royalty and is often
engraved upon royal thrones.
Nonetheless, using the peacock as the
symbol of royalty has an old and
distinguished pedigree in India too.
Melek Taus (Arabic: ‫ ;ﻃﺎووس ﻣﻠﻚ‬Persian:
‫ ;ﻣﻠﮏ ﻃﺎووس‬Kurdish: Tawûsê Melek), the
"Peacock Angel", is the Yazidi name for
the central figure of their faith. The Yazidi
consider Tawûsê Melek an emanation of
God and a benevolent angel who has
redeemed himself from his fall and has
become a demiurge who created the
cosmos from the cosmic egg. After he
repented, he wept for 7,000 years, his
tears filling seven jars, which then
quenched the fires of hell. In art and
sculpture, Tawûsê Melek is depicted as a
peacock.[31]

Ancient Greeks believed that the flesh of

peafowl did not decay after death, so it
became a symbol of immortality. In
Hellenistic imagery, the Greek goddess
Hera's chariot was pulled by peacocks,
birds not known to Greeks before the
conquests of Alexander. Alexander's
tutor, Aristotle, refers to it as "the Persian
bird". One myth states that Hera's
servant, the hundred-eyed Argus
Panoptes, was instructed to guard the
woman-turned-cow, Io. Hera had
transformed Io into a cow after learning
of Zeus's interest in her. Zeus had the
messenger of the gods, Hermes, kill
Argus through eternal sleep and free Io.
According to Ovid, to commemorate her
faithful watchman, Hera had the hundred
eyes of Argus preserved forever, in the
peacock's tail.[32]

The symbolism was adopted by early

Christianity, thus many early Christian
paintings and mosaics show the
peacock. The peacock is still used in the
Easter season, especially in the east.[33]
The 'eyes' in the peacock's tail feathers
symbolise the all-seeing Christian God
and – in some interpretations – the
Church. A peacock drinking from a vase
is used as a symbol of a Christian
believer drinking from the waters of
eternal life. The peacock can also
symbolise the cosmos if one interprets
its tail with its many 'eyes' as the vault of
heaven dotted by the sun, moon, and
stars. By Christian adoption of old
Persian and Babylonian symbolism, in
which the peacock was associated with
Paradise and the Tree of Life, the bird is
again associated with immortality. In
Christian iconography, the peacock is
often depicted next to the Tree of Life.

Among Ashkenazi Jews, the golden

peacock is a symbol for joy and
creativity, with quills from the bird's
feathers being a metaphor for a writer's
inspiration.[34]

The peacock motif was revived in the

Renaissance iconography that unified
Hera and Juno, and on which European
painters focused.[35]

In 1956, John J. Graham created an

abstraction of an 11-feathered peacock
logo for American broadcaster NBC. This
brightly hued peacock was adopted due
to the increase in colour programming.
NBC's first colour broadcasts showed
only a still frame of the colourful
peacock. The emblem made its first on-
air appearance on 22 May 1956.[36]

India adopted the peacock as its national

bird in 1963 and it is part of the National
symbols of India.[37] The current peacock
logo, which has six feathers, debuted in
1986. A stylised peacock in full display is
the logo for the Pakistan Television
Corporation.

Depictions in culture

Lord Kartikeya with his wives on his

peacock mount

"Peacock" by Merab Abramishvili

 In the 1486 painting Annunciation with
St. Emidius by Carlo Crivelli, a peacock is
sitting on the roof above the praying
Virgin Mary.

A peacock served in full plumage (detail

of the Allegory of Taste, Hearing and
Touch by Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1618)
Painting by Abbott Thayer and Richard
Meryman for Thayer's 1909 book,
wrongly suggesting that the peacock's
plumage was camouflage

Common Pea Fowl, John Gould, c.1880

Brooklyn Museum
 Syrian Bowl with Peacock Motif, c. 1200
Brooklyn Museum

Gastronomy
During the Medieval period, various types
of fowl were consumed as food, with the
poorer populations (such as serfs)
consuming more common birds, such as
chicken. However, the more wealthy
gentry were privileged to less usual
foods, such as swan, and even peafowl
were consumed. On a king's table, a
peacock would be for ostentatious
display as much as for culinary
consumption.[38]

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Joy, Beauty and Love" .
38. "Fowl Recipes" . Medieval-
Recipes.com. 2010. Retrieved 30 March
2012.
Wikiquote has quotations related to:
Peafowl

Wikimedia Commons has media related

to:
Pavo cristatus (category)

Wikispecies has information related to

Pavo

External links
Look up peafowl in Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.

Peafowl Varieties Database

Etymology of the word "peacock"
 Peafowl videos, photos, and sounds
on the Internet Bird Collection.
"Behavioural Ecologists Elucidated
How Peahens Choose Their Mates,
And Why" , an article at Science Daily.

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