Help with peacock questions for school

[baswanson2000]

My daughter is in 4th grade and is working on a research project on peacocks. She needs to "interview" an expert and I found this board.

Would someone be so gracious as to answer the following questions for her? Thank you so much in advance!

1) How do peacocks adapt to their environment?

2) What are the predators of peacocks?

3) What are the different colors that a peacock can be?

4) What do peacocks eat?

5) Do peacocks make good pets?

6) How many eggs can a peacock lay and how long does it take to hatch?

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

My daughter is in 4th grade and is working on a research project on peacocks. She needs to "interview" an expert and I found this board.

Would someone be so gracious as to answer the following questions for her? Thank you so much in advance!

1) How do peacocks adapt to their environment?

2) What are the predators of peacocks?

3) What are the different colors that a peacock can be?

4) What do peacocks eat?

5) Do peacocks make good pets?

6) How many eggs can a peacock lay and how long does it take to hatch?

I will answer the questions i know,

2- Predators: Coyotes, foxes, dogs, raccoons and mostly any wild predator larger than the fox, their easiest meal is a broody peahen.

3- India blue peafowl has 13 different colors, and there are still new colors showing between time to time. There is another kind of peafowl called green peafowl and it has 3 subspecies.

4- I feed mine mainly pheasant pellets, they also eat many kinds of greens, vegetables and fruit. Mine loves grapes and bananas in the first place, they also eat meal worms, insects and pigeon feed. *Avocado isn't good for them.*

5- If you pets like imprinted pets then its yes and no. Yes, because many people succeed in getting their birds so tame, they will eat from their hands and follow them around. No, because some males will become aggressive when they mature if they were imprinted since they were young, usually because they think their owner is one of them.


6- A peacock will never lay

, but a peahen will, during breeding season(between April to August) the peahen will lay some eggs, if she decide to go broody she will lay 5-8 eggs and then set on them, after they hatch she will raise them and will not lay again in this season. If the breeder is taking the eggs daily she will keep laying, she could lay 30 eggs in the season.

 

[MinxFox]

You will have to let us know how the project goes!

I will answer too if that is okay:


1) How do peacocks adapt to their environment? Peafowl adapt very well to different environments - In India peafowl can be found in the wilderness where they forage around streams and in leaf litter, on the edge of farmlands because they have learned to eat the crops, or even in villages or temples where they are fed by people. They can eat such a large variety of foods which makes it easy for them to adapt to different environments. They can take the heat and they can take cold pretty well. In many places in Florida there are feral populations of peafowl that have adapted to living in neighborhoods. They get fed by homeowners but also are able to find their own food foraging. They are very smart and know what food they can and cannot eat. This really helps them survive anywhere.

2) What are the predators of peacocks? Just like what q8peafowl said. Evidently weasels can kill peafowl too. Here I have big issues with raccoons killing peafowl. Even a large adult peacock can be killed by a raccoon. Owls have been known to sometimes kill peafowl by grabbing them off of the roost. As for peachicks snakes can kill them, one person even told me rats will kill them, hawks, etc. People are even a predator of peafowl. In the peafowl's native homeland the peafowl falls prey to young tigers. Peafowl are an easy meal for young tigers just learning how to hunt on their own. Leopards are also another predator they face in the wild.

3) What are the different colors that a peacock can be? There are over 225 varieties of peafowl. Here is a list of most of the varieties: http://www.unitedpeafowlassociation.org/PeafowlPhotoGallery1.html Also like Q8peafowl said, there are 2 wild types of peafowl. There is the India Blue peafowl (AKA Common Peafowl) and then there is the endangered Green peafowl (consists of at least 3 subspecies).

4) What do peacocks eat? Peafowl eat all sorts of things! I feed mine cat food (for protein), lettuce, sunflower seeds, unshelled peanuts, watermelon, grapes, blueberries, yogurt, bugs, grubs, grass, most leftover food, tomatoes, shredded apples, carrots, bird seed, cracked corn or whole corn, cantaloupe, squash, mealworms, pumpkins and pumpkin seeds, bananas, etc. Peachicks are usually fed a medicated chick starter around 18% protein.

5) Do peacocks make good pets? It depends on what you mean by pet. I personally think they make wonderful pets, but they generally are a pet you don't get to hold or touch. Kind of like having fish. You can look at them but you can't touch them or take them for a walk on a leash. If you hatch one and it imprints to you and you spend a lot of time with it, you can make it very tame. I have a peacock named Peep that likes to be pet but he doesn't like to be held so I don't hold him. Some people can hold their peafowl. All of my peafowl follow me around like a dog would and they eat out of my hand so they do get very close but most of them prefer not to be pet. They are good pets because they are easy to care for and fun to watch.

6) How many eggs can a peacock lay and how long does it take to hatch? The peahen does the laying and the peahen will lay a clutch of around 6 eggs and then she will sit on them for a max of 30 days. Usually though it takes 24 to 26 days for the eggs to hatch. If you keep taking the peahen's eggs away she will keep laying eggs until the breeding season is over. I am not sure the max amount that they will lay if you keep taking the eggs away.

 

[baswanson2000]

Thanks so much everyone for the replies!! She REALLY appreciates (and so do I)!!

 

[copper2]

There flighty too, mine ran away

 

[DylansMom]

There flighty too, mine ran away

If you would care to share the story, we may be able to tell you why your Pea ran away.

 

[copper2]

I had a pair of peafowl, they were kept in there house for several months, I started letting them out, and one day they slept somewhere on the ranch, and were gone

 

[DylansMom]

I had a pair of peafowl, they were kept in there house for several months, I started letting them out, and one day they slept somewhere on the ranch, and were gone

So you do not know for sure if they left or if perhaps a predator got them? Normally a pair(male & female correct?) would not just take off if they had everything they needed and were penned long enough to consider your ranch home. We have a bunch here that we will let out during the day and they just hang around, the one in the picture I posted is about 15 and he spends all his free range time on my back porch.

 

[copper2]

They are male and female, I don't know if a fox got them, but they may have got lost or flew the fence if they slept in a tree near it

 

[copper2]

I let them out when it was getting dark, because they killed to turkey poults