Hoot-Dash Display: Male Peacocks Dash Toward Mate and Emit Squawk Just Before Copulation
Posted on December 26, 2012
Duke University biologist Jessica Yorzinski has been studying the mating behavior of peacocks deep in the scrublands of Keoladeo National Park in northwest India. During the peacock courtship dance, a male peacock declares he's ready to make his move by dashing towards the object of his affection and emitting a loud squawk. The behavior is called the hoot-dash display. A male peacock is pictured roosting at the top of a tree in India in the above photo.
Yorzinski says in a release, "Peacocks have a number of different courtship calls, but this is the only one specifically associated with the moment before copulation, a time when the female is finally right in front of the male. It's called the hoot-dash display."
Making a noise just before copulation could attract potential predators, so it is a mystery as to why the peacocks do this.
Yorzinski says, "By that point she's already right there, checking him out. You'd think that he might not need another signal at such a late stage in the courtship process. In a sense, they're advertizing that they're distracted and vulnerable. It would be wise for a predator to capitalize on that."
Yorzinski found that the noise attracts other potential mates. She played the calls to free-ranging females in India on a loudspeaker and found it "drew eavesdropping females from afar." Tests with other bird noises confirmed it was just the peacock mating noise that lured female peacocks. Yorzinski says studies in other species have shown that females flock towards popular males.
She says, "It's like someone's already vouched for him. If he's good enough for one girl, then he might be good enough for another girl, too."
Here is a video of the hoot-dash display.