The following article falls into two of my on-going categories/series so
could also be entitled: 'Putting the Jungle Back in the Fowl Part 4'
and 'If I could Talk to the (Animals) Birds Part 3'.
Gallus gallus domesticus, the backyard chicken we know and love, is thought to have been first domesticated from the wild Junglefowl of Southeast Asia some 10,000 years ago. This is postulated from remains of domesticated fowl found in 16 separate Neolithic sites along the Huang He or Yellow River, in Northeastern China and the Indus River in the area now known as Pakistan and Northwest India.
Gallus gallus domesticus, the backyard chicken we know and love, is thought to have been first domesticated from the wild Junglefowl of Southeast Asia some 10,000 years ago. This is postulated from remains of domesticated fowl found in 16 separate Neolithic sites along the Huang He or Yellow River, in Northeastern China and the Indus River in the area now known as Pakistan and Northwest India.
There are however, four species of genus Gallus which inhabit Southeast Asia:
Lafayette's Junglefowl, G. lafayettei Centre
Grey Junglefowl G. sonnerati Bottom
and
Green Junglefowl G. varius Top Left
In 1868 Darwin published The variation of animals and plants under domestication in which he hypothesised a single-species origin, based on his observation that only the Red Junglefowl could produce fertile first generation (F1) hybrid offspring when crossed with domestic chickens. The debate on our chickens' origins has been raging ever since.
Interestingly, the Red Junglefowl cited by Darwin as the origin of the domestic chicken was not G. g. gallus but the subspecies G. g. bankiva from Java. This incidentally, along with the surrounding isles, is the home of the Green Junglefowl.
Red, Green, Grey and Lafayette
In the 20th Century experiments were made to refute this single-origin hypothesis by crossing and back-crossing different Junglefowl species. The results showed a complete hybrid fertility between Red and Grey Junglefowls and that, although first generation hybrids of Red and Green Junglefowl had reduced fertility in the females, second generation (F2) hybrids could be created by back-crossing with Red Junglefowl. Furthermore, fieldwork research carried out in the vicinity of villages with domesticated chickens found evidence that the latter had hybridised with the native Grey Junglefowl. This experimental work and observation led to the belief that all four Junglefowl species could have contributed to the origin of the domesticated chicken. Nevertheless, the Red Junglefowl and the domestic chicken were, in fact, found to be closely related albeit that there was evidence that the other species and in particular, the Green Junglefowl had a genetic contribution to their domestic cousins' creation. Additionally, with the advance in genome sequencing and the modern methods of genetic analysis, it was postulated that the Neolithic evidence for the divergence of the wild and domesticated species at 10,000 years could be more than six times underestimated.Red, Green, Black and Gold
In the spirit of 'scientific' observation or rather adventure, we set out yesterday with our Black-laced Gold Polish Hen Bungle. Polands are referenced by Darwin as having more than a nodding acquaintance with their wild cousins. Our avowed goal, other than a day on the beach collecting oyster shells, to find out if we could determine any nascent links with the Green Junglefowl.Interestingly, the Red Junglefowl cited by Darwin as the origin of the domestic chicken was not G. g. gallus but the subspecies G. g. bankiva from Java. This incidentally, along with the surrounding isles, is the home of the Green Junglefowl.
Why The Green Junglefowl?
The Green Junglefowl has some very specific differences in behaviour, diet and foraging habits to its other wild cousins and some of these traits I have already observed in my Normandie 'Junglefowl'. Beebe, who studied and published a monograph on wild pheasants in 1918 wrote also of the Green Junglefowl he encountered during his reasearch:
'Still more remarkable in habit were the Green Junglefowl on the sea-shore in Java, feeding on shrimp and marine worms from the small coral pools left by the tide.'
If you've ever fed your hens any type of fish or seafood, as I did yesterday to my neighbours' hens who we are looking after pro tem, then you'll know how inordinately fond they are of this delicacy. Witness the Dublin Bay Prawn feeding frenzy below!
Green Junglefowl live mainly along the coast, both shoreline and cliffs of Java, its surrounding isles and islets. They have greater flying ability than the other Junglefowl, including over stretches of open water to reach the various isles of the region. They forage in mangrove swamps, rice paddies, along estuaries and even within the region's deep subterranean caves.
Green Junglefowl have strong family bonds, not only monogamy but also extended relationships between both parents and successive generations of chicks. As with flying, this is something I've witnessed in our own garden.
Similar to my own birds, Green Junglefowl will use trees and bushes as walkways and are adept at climbing along branches.
Open Environment v Forest Garden
Apart from Bungle's suitability as outlined above, she is also one of our few birds who will adapt to an open environment. Our other chickens are too entrenched in the Forest garden atmosphere to feel happy even in a meadow. We have carried out several trials to see if we could take our birds foraging in the neighbour's field but only Bungle appears at ease and happy in this environment.
Even so I don't believe we fully appreciated the effect of the complete change in sounds and terrain that the beach at Agon-Coutainville and in particular on the windswept wild beauty that is the Pointe d'Agon peninsular.
Body Rather than Vocal Language
The first thing I noticed was that unlike her usual chatty self Bungle mostly revealed her thoughts through body language on the beach. She is a very independent and dominant bird in her home milieu, here out on the open shore she was much more uncertain, her body language showing caution in the lower than usual tail position and the lowering of her head and back. However her gait was rather like a prancing horse, as if she was determined not to show fear and certainly not of the skylarks, which were the most vocal of the birds on the dunes.
As expected though, with all that wonderful powdery sand, her first idea was for a dust bath. After this she seemed determined to head for the dunes. I did try to get her interested in doing some Green Junglefowl foraging but I am afraid she found the sand fleas (beach hoppers) too fiddly to be bothered with although once we were up in the dune she did peck at the snails and small arthropods.
She also had a good try at tearing off pieces of seashore vegetation but it was both tough and I guess, as she bit some off and left it, salty!
Needless to say however, when we returned home she was very happy to tuck into some locally caught grey shrimp heads!
On the following day, however and inspired by the words of Beebe, I decided to make a faux rockpool out of a reclaimed washing machine door! I sprinkled it with lettuce and added some local caught grey shrimp and waited to see if Bungle and her chums would try to catch them!
Here's the film of the whole adventure:
Thank you to all of you who by buying me a coffee - http://ko-fi.com/pavlovafowl have already enabled me to purchase extra memory for my computer. I am now also well on the way to my next goal of a microphone for the camera. All this has made my research, writing, filming and editing so much easier and is enabling me to increase my output!
All the very best from Normandie and please feel free to share, comment or ask questions about this article.
Sue
© 2019 Sue Cross
Malcolm Garrett - Junglefowl Painting
Indiana.edu - Illustration from Darwin's The variation of animals and plants under domestication
Beebe, W. 1918-1922. A monograph of pheasants (4 vols). London, H.F. Witherby & Co (This study was also considered by many later academics in the same field to be a seminal work on the Jungle Fowl). It was later issued in abridged form with the title: Pheasants, their lives and homes, in 1926
Don't worry about electronic hen house doors, just plant a tree...read more
In which I share and discuss comparisons between Jungle fowl diets,
including favourite foods and that of our forest garden flock...read more
Bungle also acted very like a young child, interested in the new environment, wanting to explore and yet she kept looking back at us. She seemed to be 'tacking' up the beach as much it seemed because of being slightly unsure as due to the wind speed. Once up in the dunes however, she found herself in a less foreign foraging environment, at least it was green!
She also had a good try at tearing off pieces of seashore vegetation but it was both tough and I guess, as she bit some off and left it, salty!
In the end she did what any other tourist does at the seaside, lay down on the sand, (incidentally using me as a windbreak) and had a lovely sunbath.
Next time we will take her somewhere with rock pools and see what she makes of them. When we had a pond in the garden the poultry did enjoy digging around in the shallows, mainly for mosquito larvae!
Next time we will take her somewhere with rock pools and see what she makes of them. When we had a pond in the garden the poultry did enjoy digging around in the shallows, mainly for mosquito larvae!
On the following day, however and inspired by the words of Beebe, I decided to make a faux rockpool out of a reclaimed washing machine door! I sprinkled it with lettuce and added some local caught grey shrimp and waited to see if Bungle and her chums would try to catch them!
Here's the film of the whole adventure:
Thank you to all of you who by buying me a coffee - http://ko-fi.com/pavlovafowl have already enabled me to purchase extra memory for my computer. I am now also well on the way to my next goal of a microphone for the camera. All this has made my research, writing, filming and editing so much easier and is enabling me to increase my output!
All the very best from Normandie and please feel free to share, comment or ask questions about this article.
Sue
© 2019 Sue Cross
Additional Images & Links
Thanks to the Pinterest boards of:Malcolm Garrett - Junglefowl Painting
Indiana.edu - Illustration from Darwin's The variation of animals and plants under domestication
Beebe, W. 1918-1922. A monograph of pheasants (4 vols). London, H.F. Witherby & Co (This study was also considered by many later academics in the same field to be a seminal work on the Jungle Fowl). It was later issued in abridged form with the title: Pheasants, their lives and homes, in 1926
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