Peacocks

Animals communicate in many different ways for many different reasons. One animal that has a flashy way of communicating are Peafowl. Peacocks come equipped with long prominently colored tail feathers that are used to make them look larger in size when threatened as well as display their genetics in an attempt to attract a potential mating partner.

Many animals have rituals that signal it’s time for mating. Peacocks (male Peafowl) use their colored feathers to attract Peahens (female Peafowl) during mating. Peahens do not have the colorful tail feathers that the males do. During the mating ritual, the Peacock exposes his tail feathers in the hopes that it will attract a compatible Peahen to mate with. Peacocks have an average of 200 tail feathers that are re-grown annually. Of the 200 feathers about 170 of them are ‘eye’ feathers and 30 are ‘T’ feathers. When a Peacock exposes his tail feathers to a Peahen he is communicating that he is a male and he is interested in mating. Studies have shown that not only the coloring of the males feathers play a role in being selected as a mate by the Peahen, but the pattern on and the length of the feathers also indicate desirable genetics that Peahen may be interested in. Studies have shown that just like humans, Peahens have preferences in size, color, and symmetry of the Peacocks they are willing to mate with.

Like most other animal species, Peafowl use aesthetic features as one way to communicate with one another. In this case the Peacocks tail feathers are put on display to show the female that he is ready, willing, and able to mate.