A study on diurnal activity pattern and time budget analysis of captive Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) in monsoon, winter and summer seasons at Alipore zoological garden, Kolkata, India
Paper Details
A study on diurnal activity pattern and time budget analysis of captive Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) in monsoon, winter and summer seasons at Alipore zoological garden, Kolkata, India
Abstract
Animal in captivity can serve as ambassadors for the wild ones. As behavioural data can help address the specific needs of captive animals and can be used as a welfare indicator, a diurnal behavioural study and time budgeting of a male Indian peafowl, Pavo cristatus was carried out from June 2023 to May 2024, at Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolkata, India. The goal of this study was to explore the overall seasonal behavioural patterns and hourly activity budget from 10.00h to 17.00h by using focal sampling method with 33,600 minutes of observations. The present study identified total nine categories of behaviour including three types of feeding behaviours, one standing, three locomotion, four resting, one displaying, three grooming, one vocalization and excretory, and two other types of activities during the observation period. Significant variations in the behaviours of the studied peacock were noticed among the three different seasons, monsoon, winter and summer; as well as within the different hours of a day. The study revealed that the peacock was primarily engaged in high frequency behaviours through-out all of the seasons. When comparing the data of activity budget among the seasons, it was noticed that, among high frequency behaviours, feeding of offered feed (10.42%), standing (39.94%), roosting (6.37%) etc. was significantly higher in summer, while the peacock was predominantly engaged in foraging (8.37%), walking (14.09%), preening (30.32%) etc. in winter season. Displaying activity was the most frequent behaviour of the peacock during the rainy season, whereas, low frequency behaviour like yawning and animal interaction only occurred during the winter. Standing was significantly higher in summer (38.33%), while, displaying (40.84%) and preening (30.56%) reached peak during monsoon and winter respectively when the first hour (10:00h to 11:00h) of the observational period was considered. On the contrary, standing was prevalent in monsoon (23.47%) in the last hour (16:00h to 17:00h), while human interaction was detected solely during that particular hour in summer season (5.83%). This observational study will provide necessary information about the behavioural patterns of these majestic birds inside the enclosure which will act as an aiding tool in determining the alteration of their activity budget with respect to their wild conspecific that will ultimately help in adopting conservation efforts and ensure their welfare.
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Mousumi Das, Mainak Mukherjee, Srija Gan, 2024. A study on diurnal activity pattern and time budget analysis of captive Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) in monsoon, winter and summer seasons at Alipore zoological garden, Kolkata, India. J. Biodiv. Environ. Sci., 25(3), 80-93.
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