The peacock comes from India and southern Asia, where it still lives wild today. The Indian peacock is one of the national symbols of India.
The peacock was brought to Europe in ancient times when it was bred in the aristocratic courts, not only due to its beauty, but also as a delicacy on the dining tables there. Roast peacock is for example still eaten today for Christmas dinner in Argentina. But you needn’t worry, we certainly don’t eat this luxurious creature in our country. In the Czech Republic, the peacock is used solely to decorate chateau parks, estates and private gardens.
The price of a peacock is determined according to its colouring. The more beautiful, the more original and rarer the peacock’s colouring, the higher its price. You can even buy a single adult bird for a mere CZK 3,000. The colouring of the feathers is created by their microstructure which creates the resulting colour effect. Apart from colour, long feathers are another dominant feature of these ornamental birds. A peacock’s tail is made up of as many as 200 elongated tail feathers which made up the so-called train.
The peacock is not a demanding animal. At the start, it is advisable to leave it in an aviary so it can get used to its surroundings. But after that, you can let it out to roam freely around the garden. If you have a tree on your land, this will become its place and it will go there to sleep.
The peacock is undemanding on food and is able to look after itself if it lives in a large garden or a park. It will find insects, small rodents or plant seeds and you can also give it fruit.
It reacts reasonably well to strangers. This doesn’t mean that it would run at an intruder intending to hurt him, but it does start to give off a very intense sound which will certainly dissuade any uninvited guests and immediately gain the attention of the owner. In the wild the peacock lives to an age of 15. In captivity, it can look forward to an additional 8 years of life.