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Red junglefowl

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"Gallus gallus" redirects here. For the domesticated subspecies, see Chicken.

Red junglefowl
Male red junglefowl walking across forest floor
Male red junglefowl
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Phasianidae
Genus: Gallus
Species:
G. gallus
Binomial name
Gallus gallus
Distribution of the four junglefowl species (Gallus), with Red Junglefowl (Gallus Gallus) highlighted in brown.
Red junglefowl (Brown)
Synonyms

Phasianus gallus Linnaeus, 1758

Video clip of a happy male

The red junglefowl (Gallus gallus) is a tropical bird in the family Phasianidae. It ranges across much of Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia. It was formerly known as the Bankiva or Bankiva Fowl. It is the species that encompasses the chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus); the grey junglefowl, Sri Lankan junglefowl and green junglefowl have also contributed genetic material to the gene pool of the chicken.[2][3] While chickens are also classified as red junglefowl, the term often only refers to wild subspecies in common parlance.

Evidence from the molecular level derived from whole-genome sequencing revealed that the chicken was domesticated from red junglefowl about 8,000 years ago,[2] with this domestication event involving multiple maternal origins.[2][4] Since then, their domestic form has spread around the world where they are kept by humans for their meat, eggs, and companionship.[5]

Taxonomy and systematics

Main article: Junglefowl

Numerous wild and one domestic subspecies of Gallus gallus exist, including:[6]

Gallus 

Grey junglefowl – Gallus sonneratii

Sri Lanka junglefowl – Gallus lafayettii

Red junglefowl – Gallus gallus

Green junglefowl – Gallus varius

Cladogram showing the species in the genus Gallus.[2][7]

Description

The nominate race of red junglefowl has a mix of feather colours, with orange, brown, red, gold, grey, white, olive and even metallic green plumage. The tail of the male roosters can grow up to 28 centimetres (11 in), and the whole bird may be as long as 70 centimetres (28 in). There are 14 tail feathers. A moult in June changes the bird's plumage to an eclipse pattern, which lasts through October. The male eclipse pattern includes a black feather in the middle of the back and small red-orange plumes spread across the body. Female eclipse plumage is generally indistinguishable from the plumage at other seasons, but the moulting schedule is the same as that of males.[8]

Compared to the more familiar domestic chicken, the red junglefowl has a much smaller body mass (around 2+1⁄4 lbs (1 kg) in females and 3+1⁄4 lbs (1.5 kg) in males) and is brighter in coloration.[8] Junglefowl are also behaviourally different from domestic chickens, being naturally very shy of humans compared to the much tamer domesticated subspecies.

Sexual dimorphism

Male junglefowl are significantly larger than females and have brightly coloured decorative feathers. The male's tail is composed of long, arching feathers that initially look black, but shimmer with blue, purple, and green in direct light. He also has long, golden hackle feathers on his neck and on his back. The female's plumage is typical of this family of birds in being cryptic and adapted for camouflage. She alone looks after the eggs and chicks. She also has a very small comb and wattles (fleshy ornaments on the head that signal good health to rivals and potential mates) compared to the males.

Drab female walking on stones
Female red junglefowl

During their mating season, the male birds announce their presence with the well known "cock-a-doodle-doo" call or crowing.[9] Within flocks, only dominant males crow.[10] Male red junglefowl have a shorter crowing sound than domestic roosters; the call cuts off abruptly at the end.[9] This serves both to attract potential mates and to make other male birds in the area aware of the risk of fighting a breeding competitor. A spur on the lower leg just behind and above the foot serves in such fighting. Their call structure is complex and they have distinctive alarm calls for aerial and ground predators to which others react appropriately.[11][12]

Genetics

Orthology

G. gallus has three transferrins, all of which cluster closely with other vertebrates' orthologs.[13]

Distribution and habitat

The range of the wild form stretches from India eastwards across Indochina and southern China, into Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Junglefowl/Chickens were one of three main animals (along with the domesticated pigs and dogs) carried by early Austronesian peoples from Island Southeast Asia in their voyages to the islands of Oceania in prehistory, starting at around 5,000 BP. Today their ancient descendants are found throughout Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.[14]

Red junglefowl prefer disturbed habitats and edges, both natural and human-created. Apparently the forage[10][15][16] and thick cover in these sorts of areas are attractive to junglefowl, especially nesting females.[17] Junglefowl use logged and regenerating forests[18] and often are found near human settlement[19] and areas regenerating from slash-and-burn cultivation.[10] Areas burned to promote bamboo growth also attract junglefowl because bamboo seeds are more available.[16][17] In some areas, red junglefowl are absent from silvicultural[18] and rubber[20] plantations, but elsewhere they occur in both tea and palm oil plantations.[20] In Selangor Province, Malaysia, palm foliage provides suitable cover, and palm oil fruit provides adequate food.[21]  The palms also offer an array of roost sites, from the low perches (~4 m) favored by females with chicks to the higher perches (up to 12 m) used by other adults.[22]

Red junglefowl drink surface water when it is available, but they apparently do not require it.  Birds in North Central India visit water holes frequently during the dry season, although not all junglefowl in the region live close enough to water to do so.[17] Population densities may be lower, however, where surface water is limited.[16]

Behaviour and ecology

A colorful male junglefowl on a forest floor
Male red junglefowl

Red junglefowl regularly bathe in dust to keep the right balance of oil in their plumage. The dust absorbs extra oil and subsequently falls off.[23]

Flight in these birds is almost purely confined to reaching their roosting areas at sunset in trees or any other high and relatively safe places free from ground predators, and for escape from immediate danger through the day.[24]

Dominant male junglefowl appear to defend a territory against other dominant males, and the size of the territories has been inferred based on the proximity of roosts. Beebe[19] concluded that territories were rather small, especially as compared to some of the pheasants with which he was familiar. This was supported by Collias and Collias,[17] who reported that adjacent roost sites can be as close as 100 metres (330 ft). Within flocks, male red junglefowl exhibit dominance hierarchies and dominant males tend to have larger combs than subordinate males.[25] Red junglefowl typically live in flocks of one to a few males and several females. Males are more likely to occur alone than are females.[10][16][17][26][27][28]

A colourful male junglefowl (left) and a less colourful female junglefowl (right)
Illustration of male and female red junglefowl

Breeding

A small, near-round brown junglefowl egg (left) and a larger, paler chicken egg (right)
Gallus gallus - MHNT

Males make a food-related display called "tidbitting", performed upon finding food in the presence of a female.[29] The display is composed of coaxing, cluck-like calls, and eye-catching bobbing and twitching motions of the head and neck. During the performance, the male repeatedly picks up and drops the food item with his beak. The display usually ends when the hen takes the food item either from the ground or directly from the male's beak. Mating then sometimes occurs.[30]

In many areas, red junglefowl breed during the dry portion of the year, typically winter or spring. This is true in parts of India, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos.[10][16][17][26][27][28] However, year-round breeding by red junglefowl has been documented in palm-oil plantations in Malaysia[21] and also may occur elsewhere.[27] During the laying period, red junglefowl females lay an egg every day. Eggs take 21 days to develop. Chicks fledge in about 4 to 5 weeks, and at 12 weeks old they are chased out of the group by their mother — at which point they start a new group or join an existing one. Sexual maturity is reached at 5 months, with females taking slightly longer than males to reach maturity.[8]

Dominant males attempt to maintain exclusive reproductive access to females, though females chose to mate with subordinate males about 40% of the time in a free-ranging feral flock in San Diego, California.[31][32]

Diet

Red junglefowl are attracted to areas with ripe fruit or seeds,[17] including fruit plantations,[20] fields of domestic grain,[19] and stands of bamboo.[10] Although junglefowl typically eat fallen fruits and seeds on the ground, they occasionally forage in trees by perching on branches and feeding on hanging fruit.[10] Fruits and seeds of scores of plant species have been identified from junglefowl crops, along with leaves, roots, and tubers.[10] In addition, red junglefowl capture a wide variety of arthropods, other invertebrates, and vertebrates such as small lizards. Even mammalian feces may be consumed.[10] Many of these items are taken opportunistically as the birds forage, although some arthropods, such as termites, are taken in large quantities; about 1,000 individual termites have been found in a single crop.[10][17] Plant materials constitute a higher proportion of the diet of adult red junglefowl than do arthropods and other animals. In contrast, chicks eat mostly adult and larval insects, earthworms, and only occasional plant material.[10]

Relationship to humans

See also: Chicken

Chickens were created when red junglefowls were domesticated for human use around 8,000 years ago[2] as subspecies Gallus gallus domesticus. They are now a major source of food for humans. However, undomesticated red junglefowls still represent an important source of meat and eggs in their endemic range. The undomesticated form is sometimes used in cock-fighting.[8]

Timeline of domestication

In 2012, a study examined mitochondrial DNA recovered from ancient bones from Europe, Thailand, the Pacific, and Chile, and from Spanish colonial sites in Florida and the Dominican Republic, in directly dated samples originating in Europe at 1,000 BP and in the Pacific at 3,000 BP. Chicken was primarily domesticated from red junglefowl, with subsequent genetic contributions from grey junglefowl, Sri Lankan junglefowl, and green junglefowl.[2] Domestication occurred about 8,000 years ago, as based on molecular evidence[2] from a common ancestor flock in the bird's natural range, and then proceeded in waves both east and west. Other archaeology evidence suggest domestication date around 7,400 BP from the Chishan site, in the Hebei province of China. However, domestication event in China has now been disputed by several studies citing unfavourable weather condition at the time.[33][34] In the Ganges region of India, red junglefowl were being used by humans as early as 7,000 years ago. No domestic chicken remains older than 4,000 years have been identified in the Indus Valley, and the antiquity of chickens recovered from excavations at Mohenjodaro is still debated.[5]

Genomic information
NCBI genome ID111
Ploidydiploid
Number of chromosomes78
Year of completion2012

Hybridization

The other three members of the genus — Sri Lanka junglefowl (G. lafayetii), grey junglefowl (G. sonneratii), and the green junglefowl (G. varius) — do not usually produce fertile hybrids with the red junglefowl. However, supporting the hypothesis of a hybrid origin, research published in 2008 found that the gene responsible for the yellow skin of the domestic chicken most likely originated from the closely related grey junglefowl and not from the red junglefowl.[3] Similarly, a 2020 study that analysed the whole genomes of Sri Lanka junglefowl, grey junglefowl, and the green junglefowl found strong introgressive hybridisation events in different populations of indigenous village chickens.[2] The study also shows that 71–79% of red junglefowl DNA is shared with the domestic chicken.[2] A culturally significant hybrid between the red junglefowl and the green junglefowl in Indonesia is known as the bekisar.

Status

Wild-type red junglefowl are thought to be facing threats due to hybridisation at forest edges, where domesticated free-ranging chickens are common.[35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] Nevertheless, they are classified by the IUCN as a species of least concern.

References

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2012). "Gallus gallus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lawal, R.A.; et al. (2020). "The wild species genome ancestry of domestic chickens". BMC Biology. 18 (13): 13. doi:10.1186/s12915-020-0738-1. PMC 7014787. PMID 32050971.
  3. ^ a b Eriksson, Jonas; Larson, Greger; Gunnarsson, Ulrika; Bed'hom, Bertrand; Tixier-Boichard, Michele; Strömstedt, Lina; Wright, Dominic; Jungerius, Annemieke; et al. (23 January 2008), "Identification of the Yellow Skin Gene Reveals a Hybrid Origin of the Domestic Chicken", PLOS Genetics, 4 (2): e10, doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000010, PMC 2265484, PMID 18454198
  4. ^ Liu, Y-P.; et al. (2006). "Multiple Maternal Origins of Chickens: Out of the Asian Jungles". Mol Phylogenet Evol. 38 (1): 12–9. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.09.014. PMID 16275023.
  5. ^ a b Storey, A.A.; et al. (2012). "Investigating the global dispersal of chickens in prehistory using ancient mitochondrial DNA signatures". PLOS ONE. 7 (7): e39171. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...739171S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0039171. PMC 3405094. PMID 22848352.
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  29. ^ Animal Behaviour Lab Dr Chris Evans, Galliform.bhs.mq.edu.au, 15 November 2006, archived from the original on 2 May 2009, retrieved 22 April 2009
  30. ^ Home, Galliform.bhs.mq.edu.au, archived from the original on 11 December 2008, retrieved 22 April 2009
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  32. ^ Collias, Nicholas E.; Collias, Elsie C.; Hunsaker, Don; Minning, Lory (1966). "Locality fixation, mobility and social organization within an unconfined population of red jungle fowl". Animal Behaviour. 14 (4): 550–559. doi:10.1016/S0003-3472(66)80059-3. PMID 6008475.
  33. ^ Peters, J.; et al. (2015). "Questioning new answers regarding Holocene chicken domestication in China". PNAS. 112 (19): E2415. Bibcode:2015PNAS..112E2415P. doi:10.1073/pnas.1503579112. PMC 4434763. PMID 25886773.
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  35. ^ I. Lehr Brisbin Jr., Concerns for the genetic integrity and conservation status of the red junglefowl, FeatherSite, retrieved 19 September 2007
  36. ^ Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities, archived from the original on 18 September 2007
  37. ^ Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) page & links
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  42. ^ "Red Junglefowl genetically swamped", Tragopan No. 12, P. 10, World Birdwatch 22 (2), 1 June 2000, retrieved 19 September 2007, According to some scientists, truly wild populations of the red junglefowl Gallus gallus are either extinct or in grave danger of extinction due to introgression of genes from domestic or feral chickens
  43. ^ "Red Junglefowl – Species factsheet: Gallus gallus", BirdLife Species Factsheet, BirdLife International, 2007, retrieved 20 September 2007
  44. ^ Peterson, A.T. & Brisbin, I. L. Jr. (1999), "Genetic endangerment of wild red junglefowl (Gallus gallus)", Bird Conservation International, 9 (4): 387–394, doi:10.1017/s0959270900002148
  45. ^ Brisbin, I. L. Jr. (1969), "Behavioral differentiation of wildness in two strains of Red Junglefowl (abstract)", Am. Zool., 9: 1072
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