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| Green Peafowl | ||||||||||||||
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 Pavo muticus imperator | ||||||||||||||
| Conservation status | ||||||||||||||
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| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Pavo muticus Linnaeus, 1766 | ||||||||||||||
| Subspecies | ||||||||||||||
The Green Peafowl, Pavo muticus, also known as the Dragonbird, is a large member of the Galliformes order. Some new data suggests that the Green Peafowl is actually several species (Kermit Blackwood et al.)[citation needed]. Any hard scientific data supporting multiple species remain unpublished and it is therefore currently classified as a single species with three subspecies; P. m. muticus (nominate), P. m. imperator and P. m. spiciferClements, James F. (2007). The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World, ed. 6. ISBN 9780713686951. Dickinson, Edward C.(editor) (2003). The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, ed. 3. ISBN 0713665362. .
While peafowl are often considered members of the pheasant family, recent molecular work has shown that the Phasianidae is paraphyletic, and that peafowl are not closely related to pheasants, grouse or turkeys. They are distantly related to junglefowl and francolins however, and share a common ancestor with Coturnix quail and Alectoris Rock Partridges. While this has yet to be published, the World Pheasant Association of Germany already lists peafowl as a distinct family [1]. This, however, is illogical if based on the assumed fact that peafowl are closer to Coturnix and Alectoris than to junglefowl and francolins, as all these groups are members of the family Phasianidae (i.e. if splitting the peafowls into their own family, the remaining Phasianidae would be polyphyletic based on this information).
Like other members of the genus Pavo, Green Peafowl is a colourful bird. Iridescent plumage may be a highly specialized form of crypsis that is useful in open forests and near water. Most predatory species like leopards and tigers, wild dogs, civets, owls and hawk-eagles that have been documented hunting peafowl do not have colour vision.[citation needed]
Green Peafowls are found today in Southeast Asia in easternmost northern India, Assam, mainland Burma, Tibet, Yunnan, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and on the island of Java in Indonesia. They are curiously absent from both Sumatra and Borneo.
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Adult Female Head and Upper Neck
The Green Peafowl is one of the two species in the genus Pavo, the other being the Blue or Indian Peafowl, commonly known as the Peacock. The Green Peafowl has a green (or blue) tufted crest, different in shape to the fanned crest of the Blue and an iridescent metallic gold-green plumage with scaly appearance on its neck, breast and mantle. Each neck and breast feather is similar in design with the familiar "eye spot" or "penumbrae" of the train. The upper tail coverts (often mistaken for the tail and should properly be known as the "train") of both sexes are made up of highly specialized plumes that serve to abruptly alter the form of the birds when startled and may also be used in defensive behaviors. The most specialized of the upper tail coverts are the "sickle" or "scythe" which are actually flank coverts. These plumes cloak the most vulnerable regions of the birds\' bodies during escape and assault strategies. The train of both sexes and even young birds is also erected and "fanned" in highly ritualistic behaviors that may serve as recognition displays and stereotyped ritual behaviors as well as in pair bonding or courtship displays. Copulation often occurs on the nocturnal roost and on elevated branches where courtship displays do not normally include train fanning. Green Peafowl, like other birds in the genera Afropavo, Rheinartia and Argusianus as well as in monals and tragopans do however perform flight displays. Both sexes participate in these displays.
The female\'s plumage is almost as colorful as the males. The main differences are that she lacks an elongated train of upper tail coverts that extend beyond the long, broad retrices. The female\'s plumage is generally more duskier at a distance and perhaps slightly duller in some light. Juveniles appear identical to the females and when one views these peafowl in the field it is very difficult to distinguish the sexes. This is because the birds inhabit tropical savannah habitat where the grass is quite high and only the head and neck are often seen. Dragonbirds are also very shy and difficult to study in the wild. When the adult males have lost their trains they are almost impossible to distinguish from their mates in the field.
Both sexes of all subspecies have a distinctive yellow crescent or "war-stripe" on each side of the double "striped" head (which is also referred to as the "loral axe"), black wings with a blue sheen, and pale fulvous primaries. The primary shape and wing formula of each geographic form is distinctive as well as the colour of the primaries, and width and length of the wings. The trailing edge wing notch is more pronounced in the Indian Peafowl than it is in Green Peafowl or African peafowl.
The male of some forms of Green Peafowl has a loud call of ki-wao which is often repeated. The female has a loud aow-aa call with an emphasis on the first syllable. The males call from their roost sites at dawn and dusk.BirdLife International (2006) Species factsheet: Pavo muticus. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 13/1/2007 [2] Some forms of Green Peafowl have divergent trachea morphology and this has an impact on their voices.
The Indian Peafowl has a much louder voice than all but the imperator because of the special apparatus that accentuate volume. The Arakan spicifer has no such apparatus and as such is much quieter. Green Peafowl are noted ventriloquists however and make many low vibrational vocalizations and even piercing whistle-like shrieks in some forms.
Green Peafowl are large birds, the largest galliform on earth in terms of overall length and wingspan, though rather lighter-bodied than the Wild Turkey. The male grows up to 3 meters (10 feet) long, including the "train" and weighs up to 5 kg (12 lbs). The female is 1.1 meter (3.5 feet) long and weighs about 1.1 kg (2.4 lbs). It has large wingspan and Green Peafowl is unusual amongst Galliform birds in their capacity for sustained flight. They are documented flying over the ocean to roost on islets off the coast of Java and on islands in large lakes in Yunnan. Some of the islets and islands are more than fifteen miles from shore.
The Green Peafowl is a forest bird which nests on the ground laying 3 to 6 eggs.Grimmett, R.; Inskipp, C., and Inskipp, T. (1999). Birds of India: Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04910-6.
The male has often been described as being polygynous, with no parental responsibilities whatsoever. He is also described as being very solitary, trying to mate with every female that enters his territory. The females are said to belong in harems, foraging with each other.
However, these are only presuppositions based upon the behaviors of captive or semi-captive Indian Peafowl (not Green Peafowl) which are facultatively polygynous and from observations of highly territorial male Green Peafowl guarding nest sites (which researchers may suppose that he is guarding multiple mates), and with both these notions combined it creates a misleading supposition that Green Peafowl are polygamous.
In fact, some researchers, such as K. B. Woods (in litt. 2000), believe that the Green Peafowls are monogamous in the wild. They believe that the male guards the nest for the entire period that it is being used, including the time before actual incubation begins. The male also guards over the chicks after hatching and that he will often take the chicks under his wings on the nocturnal roost. While the female is incubating or still in the process of creating a clutch, the male stands or perches within sight of the nest site. He is called a Dragonbird by natives because of his propensity to attack any animal, large or small that comes anywhere near the nest site.
There is some anectodotal evidence suggesting that Green Peafowl may have very complex social lives that may include the adoption of one and two year old juveniles by their three and four year old sub-adult siblings. The evidence also suggests that Green Peafowl are facultatively polyandrous, and have an alpha pair. It is not true polyandry at all, but a helper system of which many related juvenile males help out the alpha pair (the juvenile males are often the alpha male\'s young from a previous breeding season or his younger siblings).[citation needed].
They usually spend time on the ground but roost in trees at a height of 10-15m. The diet consists mainly of seeds, insects, reptiles, fruits and small animals. As with other members of its genus, the Green Peafowl can even hunt venomous snakes, making them useful for pest control.
Green Peafowls are found in a wide range of habitats including primary and secondary forest, both tropical and subtropical, as well as evergreen and deciduous. They may also be found amongst bamboo, on grasslands, savannas, scrub and farmland edge. Green Peafowl are also capable swimmers, and often forage on riverbanks as well as in streams and marshes (K. B. Woods verbally 2000). In Yunnan, birds tend to prefer living in forests..
Most sources agree that there are three distinct subspecies, although some recent work may prove otherwise. Any hard scientific evidence supporting multiple species remain unpublished.
Green Peafowl fossils from the Pliocene and older have been described from Kenya, Southern Europe and Hainan. These fossils are described as Pavo bravardi.
The hominid locality of Aramis (Ethiopia, Early Pliocene), which yielded Ardipithecus ramidus, also comprises a rich vertebrate fauna, including numerous bird remains. Among the avian taxa, a peafowl, Pavo species, is the first evidence of a very large galliform bird in Africa. Pavo sp. illustrates affinities between African and Asian avifaunas in the Pliocene. It is a fossil geographical link between the living peafowl, which are now restricted to South East Asia, and the Congo Peafowl, Afropavo congensis, that lives in the eastern Congo basin, and is morphologically distinct. The latter was recently established to be the sister taxon of Pavo, from morphological, chromosomal and molecular studies. The Ethiopian fossils are similar to the living Indian Peafowl, Pavo cristatus, and even more to the Green Peafowl, P. muticus. The Congo Peacock Afropavo probably diverged from Pavo around the Middle/Late Miocene.
Afropavo could survive in tropical forests, whereas Pavo disappeared from Africa, probably as a result of environmental changes which occurred in East Africa some time between the Early Pliocene and the Early Pleistocene. Pavo also disappeared from Europe at the same period.
Given the surprising antiquity of peafowl, their systematics are only poorly understood.
The most closely related form to Pavo bravardi, is the possible species Pavo antiqus, endemic to the Deqen region of northernmost western Yunnan and Southern Eastern Sichuan(K. B. Woods in litt. 2000), which is also larger than other forms.[citation needed].
As Afropavo and Pavo split apart during the Miocene and a peafowl very similar to Pavo muticus was well established by the Pliocene, it is surprising to learn that the Indian Peafowl only emerges from its Green Peafowl ancestral founders ~-two million years ago. Different \'green\' peafowl populations may have diverged from one another millions of years before the familiar Indian species came into existence.
P. m. muticus is the nominate subspecies. It is also considered the most colorful, as well as the most critically endangered, with about 1000 individuals in the wild. It is currently confined to Java but earlier noted from the Thai-Malay peninsula.del Hoyo. J. Elliott. A. & Sargata, J. 1994. Handbook of the birds of the world. Volume 2. New world vultures to guineafowl. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International 1. Barcelona & Cambridge.
Aviculturists refer to this subspecies as Javanese Green Peafowl, but often incorrectly refer to all subspecies in this way. This has led to some integradation in captivity and mixed stocks.
However, the notion that the nominate race muticus was the subspecies that existed in the Thai-Malay peninsula remains controversial, even though most aviculturists believe they are identical. Wolfgang Mennig, a Green Peafowl breeder and conservationist, noted genetic differences between the two birds and says that the Javan race has another subspecies in the subspecies (Baluran form).
Translated section of a German PDF:Mennig, Wolfgang, Die letzte Chance für den Ährenträgerpfau? (The last chance for the Green Peafowl (Pavo muticus)?)German PDF
| “ | The Malaysian and the Javan varieties were considered genetically identical and were grouped under the scientific name Pavo muticus muticus. This is not the case anymore. The two varieties are genetically different and the Javan variety even has two genetically different varieties of its own, the (Ujung Kulon-Form/south western Java and Baluran-Form/eastern Java). | ” |
The two forms can be identified by their crest morphology, head shape and their colours. The Malaysian form has a tall blue crest whose plumes are somewhat separated at the end. The crest is often so heavy it falls forward. At the base of such a crest is a small mound. Its backplate is a golden-rose in color. The Javanese form has a green head and crest that is tall but straight, and does not always fall forward. Behind the ear there is a violet-blue that demarcates the crown and the throat. Unlike the Malaysian form, its back is a pine green colour.
The Malaysian form is now extinct, and the birds reintroduced into Malaysia may not be Malaysian, instead they may have been Pavo muticus spicifer instead.
P. m. spicifer is the dullest and bluest race. Distributed in northeastern India and northwestern Burma west of the Irrawady river, it is often mistakingly thought to be extinct, though is quite rare. It can also be found in Thailand and was one of the three forms that existed in Malaysia (along with two forms of muticus).
Aviculturists refer to them as Burmese Greens. Birds seen or imported from Burma are often automatically considered spicifer and the race is often considered the predominant subspecies in captivity with 500 individuals. However, this is misleading; it is possible that the captive population consists mostly of misidentified imperators instead; just because a Green Peafowl is found in Burma does not mean it is spicifer (K. B. Woods in litt. 2000).
While the WPA stated that the birds reintroduced into Malaysia were of the race P. m. muticus, pictures and video of some of the birds used in the reintroduction suggest spicifer, specifically the rare distinctive form that exists in Tenasserim.
P. m. imperator is the second brightest race, next to muticus. Though being slightly duller than muticus, imperator has a brighter facial pattern, sometimes to the extent of a bold blue loral axe and tangerine war stripe.
Siamese form of Pavo muticus imperator
It is found east of the Irrawady river in Indo-China Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia and south to Thailand. Unlike earlier speculations, this subspecies was not the one that existed in the Isthmus of Kra.
Some preliminary data from K. B. Woods (Kermit Blackwood), whose work on Green Peafowl has been quoted numerous times by the Red Data Book, suggests that the Green Peafowl is actually a complex of several distinct species, each with subspecies of their own, and that each species had evolved similarly with each species of Lophura pheasants, which may also have more species than originally thought. The data also shows that each species lives in a different habitat, which is shared by one species of Lophura. For example, he says that the so called Pavo annamensis which favors broadleaf forests, shares the habitat with Lophura annamensis (a species split from Lophura nycthemera).[citation needed] However, any hard scientific data supporting the multiple Green Peafowl species theory remain unpublished.
As of this writing, Kermit has recognized at least 6 species, each found in a different ecological zone[citation needed]:
Additionally, Wolfgang Mennig, a Green Peafowl aviculturist and private conservationist working for the World Pheasant Association in Germany, believes that the subspecies imperator is really a group of four, or five subspecies: P. m. imperator, P. m. annamensis, P. m. angkorensis, and P. m. laotius. He also suggests that that P. m. yunnanensis could be another subspecies in this group and even says that some taxonomists believe there were ten subspecies, some of which are extinct. The german site of the World Pheasant Association also mentions the existence of at least 5 subspecies. German WPA site
Translated section from a German PDF written by Wolfgang Mennig:
| “ | The subspecies of the Pavo muticus imperator is divided into 4, or if the one that lives in west China yunnanensis counts, 5 different subspecies. Pavo muticus imperator whose range is from central Thailand to Myanmar, annamensis, or vietnamensis within the coastal range of Vietnam from north to south, and angkorensis from Cambodia and the laotius in central Laos. | ” |
According to recent genetic work, the Javanese form of P. m. muticus is different from the Malaysian (see above).
Some systematists and breeders have already identified at least two additional sub/species.
The birds inhabiting Yunnan may be a fourth possible subspecies:
| “ | Insert the text of the quote here, without quotation marks. | ” |
Madge and McGowan (Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse ISBN 0-7136-3966-0) also suggest that the Yunnan form might merit subspecific status because of its differences from other imperator birds.
Morphologically speaking, this form is most closely related to the Pilocene Peafowl Pavo bravardi.
It is endemic to mixed tropical pine and broadleaf evergreen forests in the mountains of northern western Yunnan; Southern Eastern most Tibet and southern western Sichuan where it is believed extinct today. This form is also significantly larger than other Green Peafowl and lives in much cooler climates than typical Green Peafowls. This region is an important region for Pliocene fossils. Fossil peafowl from Java have also been described from Pleistocene up to the Holocene.
Some actually think that at least four forms of Green Peafowl exist in Yunnan, including this one, the Yunnan form of the "true" imperator, the Annamese form, and the Tennasirim spicifer which may occasionally stray into Yunnan.[citation needed]
Another form that differs from other imperator birds is also said to live in parts of Yunnan, as well as certain parts of Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos and Vietnam in the Annamite Range. The male exhibits a bluer head and back plate than other imperator birds as well as a large mound at the base of its crest. Both sexes are said to have a stronger golden sheen similar to muticus. In fact, muticus derived from this race and may even be considered conspecific. The irises are also unusually pale; sometimes the form is described as "cat-eyed". The bird also prefers broadleaf evergreen forests. Because of all the differences, some believe these birds may also merit subspecific status soon.
When Jean Théodore Delacour examined skins of these birds, he thought they were a mere "individual variation". Opponents of this statement point out that there was more than one bird with such differences, and that the birds did not fit the description of imperator.
Some breeders have called the bird P. (m.) annamensis.
Due to hunting and a reduction in extent and quality of habitat, the Green Peafowl is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES.
Hybridisation with the Indian Peafowl may also be a cause for the decline of the Green Peafowl, damaging the gene stock of captive birds. Certain birds both in the wild and captivity which are thought to be pure Green Peafowl are really hybrids, known by some as "spauldings" or "spaldings". Additionally, the subspecies of Green Peafowl have also been heavily mixed in captivity.
Although all subspecies are declining, P. m. spicifer and P. m. imperator are not declining as much as P. m. muticus. Some breeders mistakingly say that the race spicifer is extinct, although this is not true. Nonetheless, this subspecies is also declining rapidly. The race/group imperator may still be common (though declining) in isolated parts of its range.
The nominate race supposedly lived in Malaysia, as well as the Isthmus of Kra, but had became extinct in the 1960s.
In 2005, The Star reported that successful reintroductions were being made in Malaysia by the World Pheasant Association (WPA).Chiew, Hilary, The Star, Malaysia, The return of the Green peafowl, 11 January, 2005. [3]
However, the reintroductions have not been without controversy. The publication stated that the Javan and Malay form were genetically identical, which has been widely accepted by the scientific community. However, some do not believe the forms are identical; more recent genetic work confirms this. Because of the notion that the two forms were not identical there are concerns that the wrong form of Green Peafowl was introduced. Another statement by certain publications is that the birds introduced were the nominate muticus. Photos and video footage of some of the reintroduced birds in Malaysia[4][5] have been identified as spicifer[6]. However, the DNA of the introduced stock of spicifer matched that of old museum skins in Malaysia, confirming the birds introduced were native to the area.
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Pavo muticus imperator at Ueno Zoo |
Pavo muticus imperator at Taipei Zoo |
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