Junglefowl

The ancestor of the domesticated chicken is the red junglefowl, which is from South Asia and Southeast Asia. However, it has influence from the grey, green, and Sri Lankan species as well. The chicken was domesticated about 8,000 years ago.

While junglefowl can crossbreed with domestic chickens, they are not used for meat, eggs, and feathers on the same scale as domestic chickens.

Where To Find Junglefowl

Junglefowl live in tropical climates. Their habitats are islands, forests, scrubland, field edges, and mountains. They prefer natural and man-made disturbed areas and live alongside humans, especially in agricultural areas. Forests, trees, and thickets serve as their shelter.

You can easily find hens during the laying season, which is spring and summer, because they lay an egg every day. Spring and summer are also breeding seasons, so you can also easily find territorial roosters during that time in open scrub and forest floors.

Nests

Junglefowl hens create nests in dense undergrowth or underbrush. There, they make a shallow depression in the ground and line it with feathers, grass, leaves, and sticks. However, if they find man-made coops with basket nests, they will use those as well.

Evolution and Origins

Around 4-6 million years ago, the junglefowl evolved from a common ancestor, and despite their Asian origin, there have been discoveries of junglefowl bone remnants in areas of Chile dating back to 1321-1407 CE, which suggests the possibility of Polynesian migration through the Pacific Ocean.

The modern classification of chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) acknowledges that their main ancestor is the Red Junglefowl, which was domesticated in Southeast Asia and Oceania approximately 7,000 to 10,000 years ago.

Research conducted in 2020 on the genomes of 863 chickens revealed that the jungle fowl subspecies Gallus gallus spaedicus served as the predecessor of present-day chickens, and due to a higher level of DNA shared between the two, it was concluded that the domestication of chickens took place in Southeast Asia.

Scientific Name

The junglefowl belongs to the class Aves (birds). Its order is Galliformes (“chicken-like”), which includes chickens as well as quails, turkeys, and other heavy-bodied ground-dwelling birds or landfowl.

Its family is Phasianidae (pheasant family of semi-flightless, gallinaceous game birds), which includes pheasants, partridges, peafowl, Old World quail, turkeys, junglefowl, and chickens.

Phasianidae has 54 genera and 184 species. Gallus is the junglefowl’s genus and means “rooster.”

There are four wild species and one domestic subspecies, each with a different geographic range:

• Red junglefowl (G. gallus): India, Pakistan, Indochina, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia
• Grey junglefowl (G. sonneratii), also called Sonnerat’s junglefowl: Indian Peninsula, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, south Rajasthan, and Pakistani Punjab
• Green junglefowl (G. varius), also called forktail, Javan, or green Javanese junglefowl: Indonesia, Java, Bali, Flores, Lombok, Komodo, Rinca, and small islands connecting Java with Flores
• Sri Lankan junglefowl (G. lafayettii), also called Ceylon or Lafayette’s junglefowl: Sri Lanka
• Domesticated chicken (G. gallus domesticus): Several countries in both the northern and southern hemispheres, especially China, followed by the United States and the U.K.

Genetically, the grey and green junglefowl are most closely related to the Sri Lankan junglefowl. The green junglefowl is less closely related to the red junglefowl.

Appearance

The appearance of the junglefowl depends on the subspecies. The male red junglefowl has bright red, orange, gold, brown, grey, white, olive, and metallic green feathers. His 14 tail feathers look black, but in light reveal to be blue, purple, and green. His neck and back have golden feathers. He has a red comb and a wattle. He measures an average of 3.25 lbs (24 to 51oz) and 28 inches (26 to 30in) in total length. His tail can be up to 11 inches long, and his wingspan is 26 to 32in long.

The female’s plumage has camouflage colors of various shades of brown and other earth tones. She measures an average of 2.25 lbs (17 to 37oz) in weight, 17 to 18in length, and 14 to 25in wingspan. In June, molting changes the male’s plumage to an eclipse pattern that lasts through October, which includes a black feather in the middle of his back and red-orange feathers around the body.

Similar in appearance to the red junglefowl, the male Sri Lankan junglefowl has orange-red body plumage and dark purple and blue to black wings and tail. He has a golden neck and back feathers, bare red skin, and a red wattle with a yellow center. He is 26 to 28 in length and weighs 1.74 to 2.51 lbs. The female is 14in long and weighs 1.124 to 1.422 lbs.

The grey junglefowl has a grey base color with black, ochre, and white spots in a fine pattern. His neck feathers are dark and end in yellow, which makes good artificial flies. His red wattle and comb are paler than in the red junglefowl. He has long, crescent-shaped tail feathers, and his legs are red and have spurs. He has eclipse plumage neck feathers that come from molting during or after the breeding season in the summer, like the red junglefowl. The female has yellow legs without spurs.

The green junglefowl resembles both the red and Sri Lankan junglefowl in physical appearance. Like the red, he has a black breast and sides, and like the Sri Lankan, he has areas of bare facial skin that contrast against the red. His wattle is pale purple or red with blue on the edges and yellow near the throat. Below the ears is an area of electric yellow skin. The female is brown with rare green feathers and no comb.

Junglefowl vs. Chicken

All species of junglefowl diverged from their common ancestor 4-6 million years ago. The grey and red junglefowl diverged 2.6 million years ago.

The domestic chicken shares 71-79% DNA with the red junglefowl and is therefore considered a subspecies of it. It is believed that the domestic chicken’s yellow skin came from the grey junglefowl. Also, indigenous village chickens showed crossbreeding with the Sri Lankan, grey, and green junglefowl. There’s a hybrid of the red and green junglefowl in Indonesia called the bekisar.

Another difference is in their behavior. Junglefowl are very shy of humans, whereas domestic chickens are tamed. Also, junglefowl can fly for short distances, unlike domestic chickens, which are worse at flying.

Behavior

Junglefowl do not migrate but may instead wander from their territories during drought to seek out food. The bird is semi-flightless and can only fly short distances, usually running to a shelter or flying to high perches in trees away from predators. Unlike male red junglefowl, male grey junglefowl do not flap their wings before calling.

Male junglefowl make a crowing “cock-a-doodle-do” sound, especially to announce their presence to females during the breeding season. Males are territorial. They also have specific calls to warn others of predators in addition to clucking noises.

Both sexes have an aggressive hierarchy sorted by rank, which is where the term “pecking order” comes from.

Diet

The junglefowl diet is omnivorous, a combination of insectivorous or carnivorous, and herbivorous. Hence, it eats plant matter, invertebrates, small rodents, reptiles, and amphibians. It does so by foraging and scratching with its clawed feet or digging with its bill, or perching on branches and feeding on hanging plant matter. Green potatoes, nightshade plants, and onions are toxic to junglefowl.

What does jungle fowl eat?

Junglefowl eats cracked corn, soybeans, grasses, grains, seeds, fruits, roots, tubers, leaves, worms, slugs, insects, mice, small lizards, and frogs.

Predators and Threats

Many birds of prey and land-dwelling predators eat junglefowl. Eagles and leopard cats are a couple of examples.

The junglefowl is threatened by crossbreeding with domestic chickens. For example, the bekisar, which is a cross between a domestic chicken and the green junglefowl, is the mascot of the East Java province.

The red junglefowl’s population is decreasing but is listed as Least Concern, as is the grey junglefowl.

The green and Sri Lankan junglefowl populations are both stable and listed as Least Concern.

Reproduction, Babies, and Lifespan

The red junglefowl is polygynous, meaning the male will have a harem of females in his flock. The Sri Lankan junglefowl is polygynandrous or polandrous, meaning a female will mate with two or three males, which tend to be siblings, first pairing with the alpha male.

Courtship begins with a male performing “tidbitting,” which is finding food in front of a female and giving it to her. He also makes clucking noises and bobbing motions of his head and neck.

The junglefowl hen makes a nest on the ground, usually in dense undergrowth or underbrush. She and a male mate by sexual reproduction, and the hen lays both fertilized and unfertilized eggs depending on whether she’s mated or not. They typically mate during the dry seasons, which are winter and spring.

During the spring and summer, hens can lay an egg every day. They are creamy to light brown in color, often with a yellow or pink tint and dark splotches, and number 3 to 9, but 4 to 5 on average. Incubation is 18 to 26 days, with the red and Sri Lankan junglefowl taking 20 days and the green junglefowl 21 to 26 days.

Baby Junglefowl is called a chick. Males do not assist in the raising of chicks. However, the alpha male guards the nest from a nearby perch, while beta males guard the territory from farther away.

The chicks fledge in 4 to 5 weeks, and the hen chases them out at 12 weeks. Being able to fly at 6 to 7 days after hatching, they can fly on their own at 45 to 60 days. They reach sexual maturity at 20 to 24 weeks of age, with the females taking longer than the males. Their lifespan is about 3 to 14 years in the wild (12 to 14 on average) and 10 to 30 years (up to 30) in captivity.

Population

The population numbers of junglefowl are unknown. However, they are generally threatened by crossbreeding with domestic chickens. They may also be threatened by hunting and habitat loss in some areas.