Peacock Territorial Behavior

I have included a video that illustrates hostile territorial behavior amongst male peacocks. In the video you can see that the two peacocks sort of circle around each other until one peacock hints that he is about to attack the other, where at this point they both proceed to charge at each other by flying up into the air. Territorial contact amongst peacocks can get pretty gruesome, making it a primary reason why it is very difficult to house multiple male peacocks in one place. Due to the fact that peacocks tend to prefer having multiple peahens in a harem-like setting to mate with, they don't particularly enjoy when other males are trying to do the same. At times peacocks can go as far as knocking off a fellow peacock off of his peahen partner while they are mating in order to cause mating complications. On top of fighting for the most potential peahen mates, peacocks also fight to rank highest in the peacock pecking order. At times this territorial fighting can become highly aggressive and can end up hurting one of the peacock fighters, ultimately decreasing the peacock's spot in the peacock pecking order.

Perhaps peacocks aren't the best example of aggressive territorial behavior, but from the video how do you think peacock territorial behavior compares to other animal territorial behaviors? How does their aggressive behavior compare to other birds?

Sources: eHow

Indian Peacock Conservation

In attempt to conserve the peacock population in India, the country has in fact protected the bird by law. Declared the country's official national bird in 1963, the peacock is depicted throughout Indian culture in art, music and poetry. It is estimated that there are over 100,000 peacocks in India but although it is illegal to poach for peacock meat in India, it is unfortunately not in surrounding areas of South Asia. In countries like China for example, there is huge demand and market for peacock rearing and poaching. Moreover, peacocks are not only poached for their meat but also their vibrant feathers. In effort to try to eliminate the illegal plucking of peacock feathers, India has developed ways in which one can tell whether peacock feathers had shed naturally or had been plucked. Finally on the contrary, peacocks can also be seen as a nuisance in damaging crops or in accidentally poisoning themselves by eating crop pesticides. As we have seen in my first post on peacocks in local neighborhoods, peacocks can also be seen as a nuisance when damaging gardens, making noise or scratching cars. Due to their nuisance, some cities (including those in India) have developed peacock management programs in order to try to prevent such nuisances and teach their residents to deal with the peacock presence in a way that helps conserve their population rather than destroy it.

Sources: Wikipedia