Red Junglefowl

• It is the most abundant land vertebrate on the planet: the biomass of domestic chickens exceeds that of all the wild birds in the world put together, and their bones have been proposed as a characteristic fossil marker of the Anthropocene.
• Chickens recognise more than a hundred of their own kind as individuals and establish a stable hierarchy, the pecking order, a concept first described in this species in 1921.
• The wild red junglefowl still exists in the Asian forests, but it hybridises with feral chickens to the point that genetically pure populations are becoming ever scarcer.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat & environment

Secondary forest and scrub of South-East Asia for the wild form; farms and yards worldwide

Birth weight

Precocial: born covered in down and leaves the nest within a few hours

Size at birth

Precocial: born covered in down and leaves the nest within a few hours

Sexual maturity

6 months

Gestation / incubation

21 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

6 eggs

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallus_gallus

Best time: All year round in South-East Asia, at dawn and dusk, along forest edges and in bamboo.