A Tale of Two Species: Human and Peafowl Interactions in Human-Dominated Landscapes Influence Each Other’s Behaviour

Human perception of wildlife, especially attitude towards bird species may vary from non-violent coexi-stence to a perception of birds as pests and may be an important factor in population management and con-servation practices in urban and semi-urban areas. Based on data collected from survey interviews, we studied the perceptions of local communities in Raja-sthan, India towards Indian peafowl. Local communi-ties reported Indian peafowl as crop pest and this perception and crop loss varied across seasons. Despite this, locals have a positive perception of Indian peafowl and regularly offered grains for them. Food provisioning by humans influenced diet compo-sition and time-budget of Indian peafowls. Sites at which food provisioning was less or absent, peafowl spent more time in walking and more than 50% of their diet consisted of natural food. In contrast, at food provisioning sites, time spent in walking was sig-nificantly less, while time spent in feeding was signifi-cantly more; and over 70% of their diet consisted of provisioned grains. Food provisioning changed the benefit : cost ratio of behaviours between provision and non-provision sites. Thus, perception of wildlife and food provisioning by humans can change feeding ecology of Indian peafowl populations.