Animals On Earth: India, Asia, China, Hawaii, And Madagascar

Indian Peafowl

The Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus), also known as the common peafowl or blue peafowl, is a peafowl species native to the Indian subcontinent.

Indian peafowl are a species in a group of birds called pheasants. The males are called peacocks, while the females are called peahens. Together, they are peafowl. Peafowl are among the largest of all birds that fly.

According to Treehugger, white peacocks are incredibly rare. "Their feathers are white due to a genetic mutation known as leucism, which inhibits melanin from being deposited in their feathers," the report said. Leucism does not impact a peacock's eye color.

It may seem that having such a long train and bright feathers would slow a peacock down and make him an easy target for predators like mongooses, jungle cats, stray dogs, leopards, and tigers—and this is absolutely true!

The natural enemies of Indian blue peafowl are large cats like civets (Civettictis civetta), tigers (Panthera tigris), and leopards (Panthera pardus). Wild dogs like dholes (Cuon alpines) and jackals (Canis aureus) are also considered to be main predators.

The habitat of the peafowl includes the desert, savanna, agricultural fields, lowland forests, and even parks and cities. Peafowl are omnivores and consume a diet of insects, fruit, vegetables, seeds, and small prey like rodents. Peafowl can live 10 to 15 years in the wild and up to 25 years in captivity.

Peacocks/ peafowl are omnivores, which means they will eat almost anything both meat and vegetation! In the wild peacocks eat fruit, berries, grains, small mammals, reptiles, small snakes and insects. They like ants, millipedes, crickets, termites, centipedes, locusts and scorpions.

The natural enemies of Indian blue peafowl are large cats like civets (Civettictis civetta), tigers (Panthera tigris), and leopards (Panthera pardus). Wild dogs like dholes (Cuon alpines) and jackals (Canis aureus) are also considered to be main predators.