1. UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL
SCIENCES
GKVK BANGALORE -65
DEPARTMENT OF ENTOMOLOGY
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2. presentation on topic
“Peacock & their management ”
Presented by:
Navneet Kumar Singh
Ak 9065
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3. Contents
• Introduction
• Facts
• Behaviour
• Diet
• Habitat
• Reproduction
• Mortality factor
• Menace caused
• Management
• Bibliography
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4. Introduction
PEACOCK, the National Bird of India, is a colorful, bird with
a fan-shaped crest of feathers. Peacock is a large and
majestic bird. It has got a long and beautiful tail.
The significance of peacock is attached to
cultures of India, Far East, Ancient Persia, Greek and
Christian.
In Hinduism, the image of the god of thunder,
rain and war, Indra, was depicted in the form of a
peacock.
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In south India, peacock is considered as a 'vahana' or
vehicle of lord Muruga.
The figure of peacock is painted in various Islamic religious
buildings.
In Christianity, the peacock was also known as the symbol
of the 'Resurrection'.
The term "peacock" is commonly used to refer to birds of
both sexes.
Technically, only males are peacocks. Females are
peahens, and together, they are called peafowl.

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The species are:
•Indian Peafowl, Pavo cristatus, a resident
breeder in South Asia. The peacock is designated
as the national bird of India and the provincial bird
of Punjab.
•Green Peafowl, Pavo muticus. Breeds from
Burma east to Java. The IUCN lists the Green
Peafowl as endangered due to hunting and a
reduction in extent and quality of habitat. It is a
national symbol in the history of Burma.
•Congo Peafowl Afropavo congensis.

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Facts .
Average life span in the wild:
20 years
Size:
Body, 35 to 50 in (90 to 130 cm); Tail, 5 ft (1.5 m)
Weight:
8.75 to 13 lbs (4 to 6 kg)
Group name:
Party
Did you know?
A male peafowl is one of the largest flying birds when
the combined length of its train and its large wingspan
are considered.

14. Behaviour
• Peafowl are forest birds that nest on the ground but roost
in trees.
• They are terrestrial feeders.
• Both species of peafowl are believed to be polygamous.
• The colorful tail of the Peacock is fanned out to be able
to show dominance and for the purpose of attracting a
mate.
• They live in groups and the male will often have a harem
of several females around him.
• They tend to be very social and their groups are referred
to as parties.
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15. • They will also do well isolated, but it is usually the older
males that aren’t with a group.
• When they want to mate though they will form a small
group for a short period of time.
• The complexities of their hierarchy can be hard to
understand even when plenty of time is spent observing a
particular party.
• Our peafowl will let people get relatively close to them but
are not tame enough to be touched or petted.
The only exception is when you have food in your hands.
• They are quite pecky when they do this and so caution is
advised if small children are feeding them, as it tends to
scare or even hurt.
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16. Diet
• Peafowl are omnivorous and eat most plant parts, flower
petals, seed heads, insects and other arthropods, reptiles,
and amphibians.
• They will take the opportunity to eat what they can gain
access to.
• Grain is on of the most common items that they eat.
• They will also consume fruits and seeds that they find but
those items aren’t always available year round for them to
consume.
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17. Habitat.
• They live in large heard in open forests,
banks of rivers and streams, orchards and
stream side forests.
• If you are really want to watch our this
beautiful national bird, you can watch them in
any part of the country.
• Even, on the side of your road and far in the
fields from your vehicle, they can be seen in
full majesty.
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18. Reproduction.
• Peafowls usually reach sexual maturity at the
age of 2 to 3 years age .
• The peak season in southern India is April to
May, January to March in Sri Lanka and June in
northern India.
• Males will do all they can to get the attention of
females for mating. A male may display his
feathers and prance around to get the female
attracted to him.
• Once mating has occurred the female will find
materials to create a nest. 18

19. • The males will go looking for other females that
they can also mate with.
• The clutch consists of 4–8 fawn to buff white
eggs which are incubated only by the female
• It can take up to 28 days for the eggs to hatch.
• The young will grow very quickly and within a few
days they can walk around on their own.
• It will take them a few months though to be able
to fly.
• The females tend to stay close to each other and
they will help each other with caring for the
offspring. 19

20. Mortality Factor.
• Adult peafowl can usually escape ground
predators by flying into trees.
• Large animals such as leopards, dholes and
tigers can sometimes ambush them however,
and in some areas such as the Gir forest,
peafowl are fairly common prey for such
formidable predators.
• Foraging in groups provides some safety as
there are more eyes to look out for predators. 20

21. • They are also sometimes hunted by large birds
of prey such as the Crested Hawk-Eagle and
Rock Eagle-owl.
• Chicks are somewhat more prone to predation
than adult birds.
• Adults living near human habitations are
sometimes hunted by domestic dogs or by
humans in some areas (southern Tamil Nadu) for
folk-remedies involving the use of "peacock oil".
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22. National bird : a menace
• Peacock is reported causing heavy crop loss in
many parts of Palakkad district in northern
Kerala by feeding on a wide variety of crops,
including paddy and banana.
• It is estimated that around 1,700 hectare
agriculture land is prone to peacock attack in the
district this year,” .The data was generated as
part of an exercise to assess the extent of man-
wild animal conflict in the district.
• They don't even spare the ornamental plants in
home gardens.
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23. • Flocks of birds would swoop down on paddy
fields and feed on the grains that are ready for
harvest. Paddy is also destroyed in the process
as the heavy birds crisscross the fields .
• Farmers complained that the birds had destroyed
groundnut and vegetable seedlings in several
areas.
• Birds were also found feeding on chilli .
• Banana and paddy seemed to be their favourite
feed and a flock of around 15 would come
attacking the fields at a time.
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24. Management.
• Peacocks are accorded maximum protection in
the country by including them in the Schedule-I
of the Wildlife Protection Act.
• References of the birds in Indian mythology
have also provided them some cover from
hunters.
• The only option before farmers was to scare
them away using fire crackers.
• If the area is small then high fencing can be
done
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25. • Dogs can also be used to scare them away.
• Use of friendly traps are advisable .
• Perhaps the most economical of bird pest control
products is the Bird Scare Device.These consist of
reflective foils, tape banners and balloons. Most banners
and tape produce sounds in the breeze that are really
annoying to pest birds. Balloons most often have a large
predator eye to intimidate birds.
• For small properties, Scarecrow can be used.
• This bird pest control device is rather unique in that it
features a motion-activated sprinkler that turns on
whenever it senses a bird within a certain radius.
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26. • To redirect an army of pest birds like peacocks and
keep them away, there are Bird Foggers and Misters.
These bird pest control devices spray an irritating mist
into an area, and once they sniff this stuff, it's adios
pest birds. The chemical used by these devices is a
food-grade methyl anthranilate, a grape extract that
won't harm birds, pets or people
• Some foggers and misters feature timers and multiple
nozzles to let you control the direction and time of each
chemical spray.
• Finally ,Bird Netting are used, which comes in several
mesh sizes to keep out all manner of pest birds,
including peacocks.
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27. Bibliography.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacock
• http://animals.nationalgeographic.co.in/animals/birds/peaco
ck/
• http://www.indiajungletours.com/indian-peacock.html
• http://bioexpedition.com/peacock/
• http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/the-national-bird-is-
a-marauder-here/article2208562.ece
• http://blog.birdbgone.com/blog/bird-control-update/bird-
pest-control-for-peacocks-and-other-big-birds