A Rajasthan High Court judge shared a baffling view on the national bird peacock on Wednesday when he described both cow and peacock to be “pious” and stated that “Peacock is a lifelong brahmachari. It never has sex with the peahen. The peahen gets pregnant after swallowing the tears of the peacock”.
The statement of the honourable judge brought to the fore a fact that in every culture, many animals and birds have provided a moral guidance to people since the dawn of history. Animals and other creatures of the God, including birds, have often been seen as role models. Just look at how many countries retain a bird in their national symbols, the bald eagle of the US being a prominent example.
Misogyny and patriarchal mindset are the bane of Indian society, however, even science can sometimes be sexist. Till recently, it was widely assumed that in birds male hormones controlled the male sexual characteristics — like the beautiful train that the peacock displays during the breeding season or the elaborating mating rituals and melodious songs in many species. The truth is, however, exactly opposite. Most male characteristics in birds are determined not by the testosterone present in the males, but by the absence of oestrogen, the hormone that defines a female. That really makes female of the bird species as the special one, while male is just the default sex.
Male peacocks, as also male in other bird species, do not secrete oestrogen and therefore develop male plumage like the showy train feathers of male peacock that it displays during the breeding season to attract females for copulation. In contrast, females secrete oestrogen and develop female plumage that is dramatically different in many bird species. A female that stops secreting oestrogen due to damaged reproductive organs may sometimes metamorphose into a male of the species. There are many examples of this spectacular transformation in birds.
When the honourable judge made his now-famous remarks about the peacock he talked about ‘virgin birth’, which is much favoured virtue in our mythology. We may readily recall the birth of Karna in Mahabharata but there are many such instances in our ancient texts.
Males of few large birds such as swans, ducks and ostriches have a tiny penis, whereas most other birds, including the pheasants (large group of game birds that also includes peacock) and all small birds do not have it. In all these birds without penis, including in both sexes of peacock, the opening of the reproductive tract lies inside the cloaca (near the opening of the gut). The copulation comprises a quick coming together of the male and female cloaca in what is colloquially called as a “cloacal kiss”. In a few seconds that it takes for the male peacock to pass its sperms into the reproductive tracts of the female during this very brief sexual intercourse, there is certainly no time for her to wipe any tears of the peacock’s eyes!
Knowing that pair bonding and monogamy is a much celebrated virtue in our cultures, I am sure it will be interesting to know how the peacocks fare in their parental duties. The eminent ornithologist David Lack estimated that over 90 per cent of the birds are socially monogamous, an arrangement in which a male and female work together to rear offspring. However, the mating system followed by the peacock is called polygyny — males have several female partners and females visit the males only to copulate. Males, after copulation, have nothing to do with the hatching of eggs or rearing of young birds — all essential parental duties performed by the female singlehandedly. Our hero is, therefore, certainly not the best role model for virtues of parenthood.
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