Free-ranging peafowl

As you will see, I am still new to Zoochat, so don't be surprised to hear questions coming from me.
Since most of these will be small questions, I will post them all in one thread as they pop up.

Currently the main questions I have had are connected to peafowl. Are free ranging peafowl the exception or the norm? How do zoos prevent them from entering predators exhibits ( they can fly surprising distances)? Also, can green or Congo peafowls be free ranging?

 

Free ranging Blue Peafowl are common. They cannot be prevented from flying into predators' exhibits, and sometime don't make it out again.
Congo Peafowl are too rare and too specific in their requirements, ever to be considered for free range. Green Peafowl are not cold hardy, and the males can become aggressive.

 

Fuengirola zoo in Spain used to have free-ranging green peafowl.

 

Apenheul has several Green peafowl free-ranging.

Congo peafowl have for some time been free-ranging in Burgers' Bush, a 13.000 square meter indoor rainforest hall.

 

Perhaps the operative words here are 'used to'. They can develop a tendency to attack people.

 

Interested to know about the Apenheul Green Peafowl, and whether that succeeds long term.
Free range in a confined indoor setting, however large, is very different from being at complete liberty.

 

They have had them for several years now, males only, and it seems to work fine.

 

Free ranging Indian peafowl (aka blue peafowl) used to be quite common in zoos in the United States (as in just about every zoo had them). They are not as common now, several zoos have phased them out, but several zoos still do have them. Personally I am not a fan, largely because they get into exhibits for animals from the wrong continent (seeing African white rhinos with Indian peafowl as I do at my local zoo kind of ruins it for me). I also don't like it because they defecate on the walkways and visitors have to watch where they step. I say good riddance to them all (except in an enclosed aviary).

 

I wonder if they shut them in in very cold weather.

 

Free-roaming peafowl are relatively common, but I can confirm there is noting stopping them from getting into the predator enclosures at many zoos. The birds are usually smart enough to stay out.

 

At Wellington Zoo, there was an incident in which a free-ranging Indian peahen was killed by a Brolga. Wellington Zoo no longer has any Indian Peafowl (free-ranging or not), but I don't think that them getting rid of peafowl is related to that incident (they have been phasing out exotic birds for a while now).
Staglands has several free-ranging Indian Peafowl, but the only other animals there that are likely to try to kill them are pigs.

I would say that it's stupid for zoos to allow Green Peafowl to free-range, seeing as how they are endangered and could fly into enclosures that house predators, but presumably captive Green Peafowl are all subspecies hybrids?

 

Sorocaba zoo in Sao Paulo state has a number of free ranging Indian peafowl and a single male green peafowl (The other shares an aviary with various macaw species).

These birds tend to congregate in certain areas and particularly on the open grass lawn and around the enclosed aviaries and monkey enclosures.

They don't really walk around the area with the large and small feline enclosures much but even when they do these have roofs and so they don't become glittering cat food , though , it is certainly interesting to watch the predatory behaviour of the smaller cats towards them.

The pampas cats out of all of the felines seem to be the ones which show the most visible predatory intentions (ocelot , jaguarundi and margay don't seem to be quite so stimulated in this way) and they often become very animated when a peacock , duck , goose or wild agouti strides by, which is quite fascinating to watch. Actually I've often wondered whether these cats display such readily aggressive behaviour because of an innate hyper predatory instinct due to a lower abundance of prey in their Cerrado/ grassland habitat and the higher chances of prey escaping. This being opposed to say the margay in denser rainforest habitat that is far more suitable for protracted stalking and ambush attacks.

I've actually never seen the peafowl go anywhere near the open topped canid enclosures like those of the maned wolf ( they would probably cause these canines to have a panic attack if they did as they are are a poor excuse for a predator), nor the crab eating foxes (they would fare much worse in an encounter with these I reckon).

 

Yes , this is what I've personally observed and I agree they are a lot smarter than people give them credit for.

 

Apenheul closes for a big chunk of the year over winter so I imagine they will be kept in appropriate accommodation whilst the zoo is closed to the public.

 

Helsinki have free ranging peafowl which spend the winter in a house with attached aviary.

I’m fairly sure one made it off the island in the last couple of years and had to be coaxed back.

 

I've seen them free-ranging at several zoos, and they seem quite knowledgable about where is safe. I've never heard of any getting caught by predators, although I have seen large cats in particular stalking peafowl walking on the other side of the fence.

 

Peafowl is traditionally kept free ranging in my country, that goes for places like zoos, ornamental parks near castles and private gardens. Occasional losses are expected.

Fun fact: Peafowl used to be commonly kept in my country (and some others like Slovakia or east Austria) since at least late middle ages, not only by rich families, but also by vilage farmers. They were like chicken or geese, they were kept for meat and for feathers. The most prized part of the tail feather was not that nice colourful end, but the quill. The quill would be cut into 4-6 long strips and used to embroid traditional belts and other clothing pieces made from leather. Later on, around beginning of 19th century, with spread of turkeys and generel change of agriculture production, breeding of peafowl in villages disappeared and it survived only at rich estates for ornamental purposes.

 

Bronx Zoo has peafowl free-ranging around the zoo. They are most common, ironically, in the Wild Asia Monorail exhibit, you can often see them with the blackbucks, muntjacs, barasingha, and axis deer in the first exhibit.

 

Blue Peafowl comes from dry regions of India where it experiences near-zero temperatures and is domesticated. Green Peafowl is cold-sensitive, aggressive and suspectible to disease. So it is not common in captivity and almost unheard-of as free-ranging. In fact, many Green Peafowl in collections are artificial hybrids with Blue Peafowl, which are said to be tougher.

I wonder about other galliform birds free-running. Besides domestic Guineafowl and Red Junglefowl (probably actually domestic Chicken), anything else? I know that wild Common Pheasants live in some zoos in Europe. Of other pheasants, most commonly kept are Golden, Reeve's, Silver and Lady Armhest which are naturally very skulking birds of dense forest undergrowth. Released in a zoo, they would hide in thickest bushes.

I wonder if Eared Pheasants sp. or Himalayan Monals were ever tried free-ranging? Both are native to semi-open or open habitats and winter-hardy. What about Vulturine Guineafowl or Ocellated Turkeys?

 

Himalayan Monals could be an interesting try, so could tragopans.

I think Safari West had/has free-ranging Vulturine Guineafowl, if I'm remembering rightly from @snowleopard's review.