Proud as a Peacock Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pavo

The genus Pavo is part of the Phasianidae family which includes partridge, pheasant, chicken and other gamebirds. Pavo derives from the Sanskrit name "Pavana", a Hindu deity who was also known as Vayu, God of the winds and the element air (the other elements being fire, earth, water and space). Vayu was also known as the breath of life.

The word pavane is also another name given to the peacock dance, a slow courtly dance where couples step back and forward, then encircle each other before appearing to strut as a peacock would in real life.

Answer: Asia

Unfortunately for Mrs Peahen, peacocks in the wild are polygamous and enjoy the company of up to five females in his harem!

Wild peafowl are a medium to large sized bird native to India, countries around south-east Asia and the Congo basin in central Africa. The three varieties are called the Indian (Pavo cristatus), the green (Pavo muticus) and the Congo (Afropavo congensis). The Indian peafowl is the most populous species, and has a conservation status of least concern, whereas the other species are either endangered or vulnerable.

The males from Asia are easily identifiable by their large train of eye-spotted tail feathers which fan out to lengths of up to six feet. The smaller female is a lot less ostentatious, especially the Indian variety with their various shades of brown feathers. Domesticated varieties have lived in the Americas and Europe for many centuries, and Australasia since possibly the 19th century, with some becoming feral after losing their adopted habitat.

Answer: Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin thought he had it all mapped out when he wrote his 1859 book "On the Origin of Species", detailing his lifetime study into the process of natural selection, how all living things are related, the survival of the fittest and how generations evolve. That was until he met the peacock! It puzzled him why a bird of beauty had the need for such a cumbersome tail. The tail slowed them down in flight, they became extremely clumsy when sprinting at ground level, the feathers bright as jewels making them stand out to predators; in other words, the tail hindered its rate of survival.

He was so flummoxed that he wrote to a fellow scientist in 1860 "The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!". He eventually realised that the tail fanned out in all its beauty was used in mating, and so followed his second book in 1871 detailing sexual selection, "The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex".

Answer: He starts moulting and loses his eye feathers

Peacock feathers include wing, neck, crown and sword feathers, but it is his eye-catching fan of tail feathers that is his pride and joy. The mating season varies by area, but it is normally dependent on the rains. In India, the mating season can be any time between April and June, and by August, the peacocks have shed their train, leaving only their grey quill feathers on display.

Their iridescent tail feathers grow back over winter, back to their full glory in time for spring and the new mating season.

It is usually as the feathers moult that people collect them off the ground to use as gifts, as home decorations or to accessorise clothing. The import and export of any peacock feather is restricted by customs regulations due to some countries experiencing an outbreak of avian flu.

Answer: Two years

Once Mrs Peahen has laid her eggs, which are around three times larger than a chicken's egg, she will nest them in low lying undergrowth for an incubation period of around 28 days. Mr Peacock has already abandoned them as only the female looks after her young.

As soon as the chicks hatch, and usually within 48 hours, they start gingerly exploring the outside world from under their mother's apron, never too far from her watchful eyes. After just a few short days, mum will try and persuade her chicks to fly up into the branches above to keep away from predators. Both male and female chicks look alike with their brown/grey downy feathers.

They are hard to distinguish until the male chick starts to change colour at around six months old, but it will take him a further 18 months until his tail feathers are fully formed.

He will be sexually active from three years old where he will find his own harem and start the life cycle all over again.

Answer: Omnivore - including ants, seeds, fruit and nuts

The peafowl's natural habitat is the forest or rain forest, where they nest in trees and find sufficient food to feed their diet off the forest floor. They eat seeds, nuts, berries, flowers, termites, ants, scorpions, crickets, and even small mammals, reptiles and amphibians won't be able to avoid their quick foraging reflexes. Small chicks at three or four days old are taught by their mum how to catch small live insects and animals, and they soon learn how to forage for seeds, nuts and grasses themselves. Once they have finished feeding, they will find a sunny spot to preen their beautiful plumage.

Answer: Ocelli

Both the green (Java or Burmese as shown in the image) peacock and their relative, the Indian peacock, have tail feathers with eyespots. Ocellus (singular) or ocelli (plural) is taken from the Latin word oculus, meaning "eye". The eyespots are designed to mimic real eyes and deceive predators into thinking their body is larger than it actually is. There are many creatures which have these deceptive markings, and these include fish, butterflies and reptiles.

It is estimated that the male peacock has on average 200 tail feathers, with three-quarter of these with the an ocellus. With peacocks, their eyespots are used to attract mates and research has shown that the female peahen is attracted to the peacock with the most eyespot feathers. Charles Darwin also wrote, "As no ornaments are more beautiful than the ocelli on the feather of various birds..they deserve to be especially noticed".

Answer: They both have bare red neck skin

Although the Congo peacock has stunning colouration, it is not so vibrant as its Asian relative. It is also the only species without long eye spot tails, but instead has a shortened fan which is similar to a turkey. It has a white tufted crest, black interspersed with blue and green body, with an identifiable patch of red skin on its neck.

The female is very similar, but with more brown and less blue, and with a smaller tail. They are a shy bird and have lost their habitat mainly due to deforestation and hunting, with only an estimated 2,500 to 9,000 adults left living in the wild.

Answer: False

Mayur pankh is the Sanskrit word for peacock feather. The Krishna was a Hindu deity who was often depicted with a peacock feather, or mayur pankh, rising from his crown. The peacock is highly sacred in India and is their national bird. It is a protected species and anyone seen killing one is charged under the relevant section of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972. Peafowl roam India freely in groups, just on the periphery of communities, but mainly in forested areas and fields near rivers.

Although shy, they will approach townships and villages on the scrounge for food.

Answer: Leucism

The jewel-like colours of the peacock do not arise purely because of pigments, but because of the changing light due to a natural occurrence called interference. Each feather has many two-dimensional crystal-like structures which reflect and filter light, giving the appearance of bright blue and green shimmering at different angles. Butterflies, pheasants, hummingbirds and birds of paradise also use the same phenomena.

White peafowl are not albinos as they have blue eyes, but instead have a condition called leucism. Small peachicks are born yellow but their colour changes to pure white as they mature. Leucism is when cells lack the ability to make any pigment, whereas albinism is when an animal is unable to produce melanin. It is believed that white peafowl appeared due to selective breeding and further breeding has introduced different colour variations including the pied white, blackshoulder pied and the blackshoulder. As with many other peacocks bred in captivity, many have become feral in different countries.