Malayan peacock-pheasant

The bird

Adult males are about 50 cm long, about half of that is made up by the tail. Their tarsus measures approximately 6.5 cm, and their wings are 20–21 cm long. They weigh from over 600 to nearly 700 g.

Published measurements include mass about 630.

Range and habitat

Most Malay peacock-pheasants today live in protected areas in Malaysia, namely Taman Negara National Park and Krau Wildlife Reserve in Pahang, and perhaps Sungkai Sambar Deer and Pheasant Wildlife Reserve in Perak and Sungai Dusun Wildlife Reserve in Selangor. There are also a few reports from less strictly-protected areas, such as Pasoh Forest Reserve in Negeri Sembilan.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Breeding

While captive Malay peacock-pheasants may sometimes appear to polygynous or promiscuous, not forming lasting pair bonds, this is probably atypical as peacock-pheasants are as a rule monogamous with males participating in nest defense and chick rearing. Breeding activity may in fact occur essentially all year round (as in many lowland rainforest birds), triggered by abundance of mast rather than by a fixed circannual rhythm.

Males scrape the debris and leaf litter off their display sites in forest clearings, from where they maintain vocal contact with their mate and progeny. This is not always the case in instances where pairs are maintained in mixed species enclosures and encouraged to nest naturally.

In crisis

Due to ongoing habitat loss, small population size and limited range, the Malayan peacock-pheasant is evaluated as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Deforestation is the main threat for this species, and has rendered more than half of the places where it was found in the 1970s unsuitable for it. The available habitat has even declined by over three-quarters during that time, indicating that the population – estimated at about 8,000 adults as of 2008 – is close to the maximum possible, as less and less suitable forest is not inhabited by P. Malacense.

It used to be hunted for food or as a trophy, but compared to deforestation these threats are nearly insignificant nowadays. A zoo population exists, numbering 189 birds in 35 sites in 1993.

CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.

Malayan peacock-pheasant is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Malayan peacock-pheasant, Wikidata item Q268392. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.