Archives: Lek

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Life imitates [filmmaking] art

Congratulations to Myra Burrell – her peacockumentary has been short-listed for the Animal Behavior Society’s film festival! Myra, a veteran of the natural history film program at the University of Otago in New Zealand, traveled to California with me in 2010. She helped with peacock field work, capturing more females than anyone thought... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

How I learned to respect the peahen

Written for the Los Angeles Arboretum. Meep meep? More like “Honk honk!” Arboretum regulars will no doubt recognize the call of a startled peahen, but you may not be aware of the clever ways they use it. Not that they try to boast or taunt the enemy, necessarily, but I’m starting to think that... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Furious about eyespots

I think I flubbed an interview this week. My supervisor Bob and I just published a paper that is getting some press, because it addresses a recent controversy about the peacock’s train1. Eager for the interview with Nature News, I wasn’t exactly prepared with good lines for the reporter to go on – and I... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

A case of mistaken celebrity

They all look the same to us. Celebrities, that is. And by us, I mean academics. The proof starts with peacocks. Last fall, I was working on some measurements I took of the crest ornament in these birds. Peafowl have this funky little fan of feathers on top of their heads, and though it’s... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Reaching the other side, in synchrony

It’s a familiar site on campus here during the first week of class: packs of jaywalkers moving in tight co-ordination, in sync with the flow of oncoming cars. From traffic lights and power grids to stereo sound and cinema, synchrony is so common in our environment that we usually only notice it when it... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Masters of illusion

It can be easy to see intelligence in the animals we spend a lot of time with. Everyone has their pet example, one of the most common being dogs who can anticipate the precise time of their owners’ return. But what does this really say about the mental life of dogs? Some birds are... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Deep archives: Sex “pests” get more practice

Having finished my field work this year, I thought I’d keep up with this blog by writing about interesting things that other people have seen animals do. To start: this BBC science news report on the discovery of a “sex pest” seal that attempted to mate with a penguin, brought to my attention by Rob... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Deep archives: Lek perspective

Males display in the “Wild Asia” exhibit at the Bronx Zoo, which can only be seen by riding the zoo monorail. The structure behind the birds is the monorail track. I’ve had some success on this trip after all. The weather was perfect for my model experiments yesterday (sunny, warm, not too much wind),... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Deep archives: The Californians, in pictures

Although I’m very happy to be back in Canada (having decided that Los Angeles is a terrible place to live, mostly because of all the driving), I have to admit that the people of California were quite friendly. I found the peafowl to be equally amenable. Since mating activity was finished during my last... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Deep archives: A working strategy

I am very excited to report that Penelope has finally lived up to her name! Here she is right before being courted by male no. 30: (Photo credit: Rob Ewart) The secret to her success? You have to present her to males that are already (preemptively) inspired to display their tails. When you present her... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Deep archives: Better than Gary Busey

They’re filming a movie on our field site right now. Apparently this isn’t out of the ordinary; one of the Jurassic Park movies and the climax from Anaconda were both shot at the Arboretum, for instance. We’ve known this for some time, since a work crew has been gradually building a stadium on the main lawn... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Deep archives: An instance of spite?

I have seen my first peafowl egg. Laid in the sink of the men’s bathroom, some of the Arboretum staff found it and brought it to me, unsure of what to do with it. The peafowl are overpopulated here and the staff are encouraged to find (and destroy) eggs. I ended up giving this... More

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