Herd of Spotted or cheetal deer on dry grassland as a peacock forages, in Southern India.
The chital or cheetal also known as chital deer, spotted deer or axis deer, is a deer which commonly inhabits wooded regions of India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and in small numbers in Pakistan. The chital goes by various names in India, among which include: chital horin in Bengali, thith muwa in Sinhalese, jinke in Kannada, pulli maan in Tamil and Malayalam, jinka in Telugu, phutuki horin in Assamese, haran/harin in Marathi, and hiran in Hindi/Urdu (the latter two derived from harini, the Sanskrit cognate for 'deer'). It is the most common deer species in Indian forests. The name chital comes from the Bengali word chitral /chitra , which means "spotted". The chital is monotypic within the genus Axis, but this genus has also included three species that now are placed in Hyelaphus based on genetic evidence.
The Indian peafowl or blue peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is a large and brightly coloured bird of the pheasant family native to South Asia, but introduced and semi-feral in many other parts of the world. The species was first named and described by Linnaeus in 1758. The name Pavo cristatus is still in use now. The male peacock is predominantly blue with a fan-like crest of spatula-tipped wire-like feathers and is best known for the long train made up of elongated upper-tail covert feathers which bear colourful eyespots. These stiff and elongated feathers are raised into a fan and quivered in a display during courtship. The female lacks the train, has a greenish lower neck and a duller brown plumage. The Indian peafowl is found mainly on the ground in open forest or on land under cultivation where they forage for berries, grains but will also prey on snakes, lizards, and small rodents. Their loud calls make them easy to detect, and in forest areas often indicate the presence of a predator such as a tiger. They forage on the ground in small groups and will usually try to escape on foot through undergrowth and avoid flying, though they will fly into tall trees to roost. The bird is celebrated in Indian and Greek mythology and is the national bird of India. The Indian peafowl is listed as of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Source : Wikipedia
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