Archana Das, Prabal Sarkar, Dhurjati Pathak and Anindita Bhattacharya
Abstract
A quantitative analysis of the activity budget of free-ranging forest flocks of Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) was conducted in Barnodi Wildlife Sanctuary of Assam covering an area of 26.22 sq. km to examine their activity patterns, time allocation in various activities and its seasonal fluctuations. A total of 11,664 scan samples were recorded over the period from 2021-22 to 2023-24, encompassing all four distinct seasons across three consecutive years. The study flock spent more than one-third (39.8%) of their total annual time on feeding followed by 26.3% on locomotion, 13.2% on resting, 9.8% on monitoring, 8.6% on preening and scratching, 0.6% on reproduction and 1.7% on other activities. A distinct seasonal variation in different activities was also recorded irrespective of year. The study has revealed that foraging is the most crucial factor responsible for the variation in time spent in the activity profiles. As the food is randomly distributed in the forest, the study flock cost-effectively rearranged their total time to maximize their time spent on foraging, locomotion, and resting activities. This finding demonstrated that the nature of the distribution of food resources is the main guiding force for allocating time to various activities irrespective of seasons.