Are Grey Junglefowl Avoiding Artful Areas Around Ellora Caves?

Summary: Grey junglefowl are absent from traditional niches around the ancient architecture and artistry of Ellora Caves in Maharashtra, peninsular west India.

female (left) and male (right) grey junglefowl (Gallus sonneratii), at one-fifth natural size, by Danish artist and naturalist Henrik Grønvold (Sept. 6, 1858-March 23, 1940); The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, vol. XXV (March 20, 1917), frontispiece: Public Domain, via Internet Archive

Grey junglefowl appear less, if at all, amid the Ellora Caves rain gardens, Ellora Caves sanctuary gardens and Ellora Caves teak forest around the architecturally, artistically astounding Ellora Caves of Maharashtra, India.

Grey junglefowl belong among the basic, beautiful, beloved wildlife of natural, overlapping, unofficial Ellora Caves rain gardens, Ellora Caves sanctuary gardens and Ellora Caves teak forests. They contribute, as carriers of germinatable, viable seeds and controllers of the food chain's invertebrate members, to the somewhat cultivated corners that cluster around Ellora Caves. Physically and sexually mature two-plus-year-old grey junglefowl defer to each year's breeding and nesting season from February through May, March through July and October through December.

Grey junglefowl hatchlings from each mated couple's seasonal clutch of four to seven cream-white eggs incubated 21 days in grass-lined, ground-scraped depressions under lowland forest vegetation.

Physically and sexually mature female two-plus-year-old grey junglefowl, with spur-free yellow legs and yellow capes, furnish domestic chickens with the gene responsible for yellow-pigmented body parts.
Grey junglefowl, grouped scientifically as Gallus sonneratii (from Latin gallus, "rooster"; for Pierre Sonnerat, Aug. 18, 1748-March 31, 1814), get yellow-capped, yellow-legged females with brown-and-white-streaked undersides. Physically and sexually mature two-plus-year-old female grey junglefowl have 14.96-inch (38-centimeter) head-body lengths and, smaller than male counterparts, 24.87 to 27.87-ounce (705 to 790-gram) body weights. Grey junglefowl, identified by Coenraad Temminck (March 31, 1778-Jan. 30, 1858), inspire fishing, hunting-influenced poachers with neck-hackle feathers for fishing lures and meat for traditional recipes.

Physically and sexually mature grey junglefowl journey, during five-year life cycles, throughout early morning and dusk hours as mixed or same-sex foraging groups with ku-kayak-kyuk-kyuk calls.

Physically and sexually mature male two-plus-year-old grey junglefowl keep fine-patterned, golden, ochre, yellow-spotted black neck and shoulder capes; and dark, elongated, hard, small, yellow-plated neck feathers.

Physically and sexually mature male two-plus-year-old grey junglefowl log brown-gray, fine-patterned bodies; black-and-white-streaked undersides; brown-gray curved, long, sickle-shaped central tail feathers; and brown-gray waterproof, waxy plumage. They maintain red legs and wattles; manifest red combs and long, waxy-textured hackles during breeding seasons; and moult neck feathers summers during or after breeding seasons. The Phasianidae (from Greek φᾱσῐᾱνός, "pheasant" and -ειδής, "-like") family member's leg backsides each net a metatarsal (from Greek μετά, "behind" and ταρσός, "[foot] sole") spur.

Physically and sexually mature two-plus-year-old male grey junglefowl observe 27.56 to 31.49-inch (70 to 80-centimeter) head-body lengths and 27.87 to 40.07-ounce (790 to 1136-gram) body weights.

Grey junglefowl pursue omnivorous (from Latin omni, "all" and -vorus, "-eating") diets of bamboo shoots, berries, crops, figs, grasses, insects, seeds, termites, ticks, tubers and worms.

Grey junglefowl queue up in scrubby, open, mixed, lowland, evergreen, deciduous forest undergrowth with bamboo (Dendrocalamus), bushland, cropland, fig (Ficus), grassland, Indian petunia (Strobilanthes) and thickets. They realize a 471,044.63-square-mile (1,220,000-square-kilometer) range from peninsular west India to Gujarat southward, south Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and the Godavari River mouth in eastern Andhra Pradesh. Globally warmed climate change; habitat degradation, fragmentation and loss; light and noise pollution; and tourist facilities support the International Union for Conservation of Nature endangered status.

What took grey junglefowl away from the Ellora Caves rain gardens, Ellora Caves sanctuary gardens and Ellora Caves teak forest around architecturally, artistically treasured Ellora Caves?

male (left) and female (right) grey junglefowl (Gallus sonneratii) by British ornithological illustrator George Edward Lodge (Dec. 3, 1860-Feb. 5, 1954); W. Beebe, A Monograph of the Pheasants, vol. II (1921), Plate XLII: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

female (left) and male (right) grey junglefowl (Gallus sonneratii), at one-fifth natural size, by Danish artist and naturalist Henrik Grønvold (Sept. 6, 1858-March 23, 1940); Menpes Press, Watford; The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, vol. XXV, Part I (March 20, 1917), frontispiece: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5453862; via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/journalofbombayn25abomb#page/n9/

male (left) and female (right) grey junglefowl (Gallus sonneratii) by British ornithological illustrator George Edward Lodge (Dec. 3, 1860-Feb. 5, 1954); W. Beebe, A Monograph of the Pheasants, vol. II (1921), Plate XLII: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34631040

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