Are Male Peafowl usually aggressive to people?

[Germaine_11.20]

Hi, I bought Peafowl last year and I ended up with 1 hen and 5 males. One of the males has started to challenge me and has even attacked. Up until now they have been very friendly. The hen is too young to lay (they were born last July).

Since then I carry around a walking stick, but I still am not comfortable turning my back on him. I have watched him chase the geese off and he is one and they are 5 big African geese!

Is this typical or should I cull for temperment? Will the next in line just take over and be nasty if I get rid of the first aggressive male?

 

[MinxFox]

It is always strange when people do end up with an aggressive peacock because there are those that handle peacocks a lot and don't end up with aggressive ones. I guess some just have the personality to become aggressive or something. The latest UPA magazine had a photo of a lady in a recliner with a mature peacock laying all sprawled out in her lap looking very comfortable. Some peacocks get very tame and have no aggressive issues but others just turn.

My tame peacock Peep thinks people are potential mates and will do the mating call and then rush at you trying to mate with your foot and he is four years old now and has not shown any aggression except for a time when he accidently scratched me. I figured I startled him because he was in the middle of a fight with another peacock and I came around a corner and he jumped on me probably thinking I was the other bird. I still have the scar from that but it wasn't that bad.

With your peacocks jumping up near your face I would wear some clear protective glasses to avoid getting hit in the eyes. You should probably always carry a stick, broom, trash can lid, something to push them away from you. It sounds like they are making it hard for you to not turn your back on them, but if at all possible try not to turn your back on either male. That is often the advise with aggressive/territorial peacocks is that you don't want to turn your back on them because that is when they will get you. If they jump at you try chasing after them for a little bit. I chase after some of my peacocks when they get to picking on my tame peacock Peep. It doesn't ruin their trust with me as they are back to eating out of my hand right after I chase them, but it probably helps show them I am dominant since the dominant peacock always chases the other peacocks around.

 

[DylansMom]

A honey customer of ours who sells our honey at their pumpkin patch and produce store had a pair of peas that they wanted to find a new home for. I think the health problems that the owners was catching up with them and they wanted to cut back the employees and the winter maintence. We took in their IBBS cock and IBWE hen last fall, went through the isolation and worming/cocci treatments and started to look for a new home for the cock but before we coud find one for him DW fell in love with him and we decided to keep him around. Now the cock is free ranging around the house with another mature male and two two year old cocks.

Well, Ron, yes we name birds with the name of the people that we get them from, is a little beggar. He will run up to get in the way of where you are walking to stand in the way and look for a treat. That is part of the problem, we walk around with raw peanuts in our pockets and now he expects to be hand fed peanuts instead of eating his feed.

The other day DW gave him a couple of peanuts, turned around to walk away and Ron jumps up and flogs her from the back. He didn't hurt her but DW was startled. The next day he was being a pest and I tried to reach down and touch him, he jumped up in my face. No damage to me but hey, that was unexpected. Later yesterday DW had another encounter when Ron. She had been giving him dog food as a treat, he ate one held between thumb and forefinger, he ate one then after that he kept biting her finger instead of the treat. When she tried to pick one up off the ground where he dropped it he flogged her with his wing. Well she promptly put her foot in his chest and that was that.

DW thinks we should stop giving him hand fed treats.

I think @MinxFox has a good idea with chasing back to show dominance, what do y'all think? I am a bit concerned that when/if the grandkids come up that there may be a problem.

Chasing back may work for us adults who are a lot bigger, but I would be worried that with kids around they might see this as a challenge from a rival of equal size and be even more likely to escalate. I would definitely stop the treats and if he keeps it up, the free ranging would end. Before selling him I would want to see where this all ended up, I wouldn't want to see someone else less knowledgeable end up with him, as someone could really get hurt. Roger has not shown any aggression toward me yet, when I moved him I just cornered him and picked him right up, he squawked at me but was completely compliant. He just reminds me of Poppie, and the BS you had, more interested in fighting other males than anything and prone to taking out his aggression on hens. Roger is not as imprinted as Chirpie the spalding, he has never been comfortable with being petted or touched the way Chirpie is, but because of all the handling when we were taping his legs for the TT, he got used to being picked up.

 

[Kev]

No not normal. Go ahead and cull him out.

Generally, most people-aggressive males were raised "very hand tame". But this one is also unusual for being this aggressive at such a young age. Usually it starts to happen when the male is two or three and during breeding season. It is also very hard to cure them of this, sometimes they will 'calm down' after breeding season but start up again every breeding season.. if this doesn't appeal to you, get rid of him.

If it has Java/spalding blood in him, could be part of it.. aggression can be higher in those than Indians.

BTW have had over 200 India males, none of them ever attacked any people, even the very tame ones.. only ones to attack me were Javas. I have seen a few pure Indias that attack people owned by others though.

 

[deerman]

rare for india to attack, I have one that was hand raised by himself . He only attack during breedeing season, all other times he will follow people around lika a puppy. Like Kev said the greens will attack more.

Had hundreds also ,only one I ever had attack was the hand rasised one. I also say get rid of him,if he is a india.....

 

[chickenzoo]

Scary. I have 2 very hand raised males and they have never tried anything. They all will chase and jump up at the Emu, just for fun... and one male and one Tom turkey have a love hate relationship, but to be that aggressive is rare.

 

[deerman]

chickenzoo, don't worry mine was the only bird, none other around, so he imprint on humans. tame and imprint not the same. he just look at me like another peacock, reason he attack people during the breeding season.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Thank you! I really did not know if it was normal. My male geese challenge me all the time and when the Peacock did I just was so disappointed.
The other 4 are fine so far.

I don't know if they have green in them but I suspect that they have "something" as the breeder had some whites in there. So who knows what these have. They look India to me but way back when I posted asking about their sex and received a post that they thought they looked crossed with something.

I have always fed them right at my feet and been able to walk away. But this boy starting coming toward me with a funny look in his eye. I started to walk away and he started coming faster.
So I decided to walk backwards to keep an eye on him and he kept coming. I tried to "shoo" him away and that is when he lept up and tried to attack. I dodged him and tried to shoo him again and a repeat of the attack.

By that time I was close enough to the hose and I grabbed it and took a swing, missed and he came again. Next time I connected and off he went.

Since then I just keep them all at bay with my walking stick and it is making me sad. I miss the friendliness I had with them.

No kidding, he runs off 5 full grown African Geese like he was King. They literally go running across the property with him chasing them.

 

[chickenzoo]

Well maybe he needs a few good wacks to put him in line.Maybe he'll suddenly realize that he is lower than you or perhaps separate him for awhile. Maybe it's too much testostrone in the air with just one girl and all those boys.. hehe.

I'd offer my emu to whip his butt for you, but they are big wusses.. LOL

My peafowl control them too... hehe

 

[Germaine_11.20]

LOL I would like to whack him! That is one big Emu! But such a cutie!