Red junglefowl

Gallus gallus

The red junglefowl is the ancestor of all domestic chickens.

Red List

Least Concern

Red junglefowl have a rich ‘vocabulary’: around 30 different calls are known, which the fowl use to communicate with one another.

Although red junglefowl tend to live in thickets, they still benefit from agriculture. Abandoned fields and clearings in the thickets, which were once used for farming, serve as ideal feeding grounds.

Taxonomy

Phasianidae, Gallus (4 wild species)

Habitat

semi-open, varied landscapes such as forest edges, bamboo thickets, mangrove forests and woodland-like areas up to 2,000 metres above sea level

Behaviour and ecology

resident birds that remain in the same region; migration, for example, due to seasonal temperature differences or weather phenomena

Social structure

live in flocks of between 16 and 40 birds, which help one another with preening but keep their distance from one another; there is a pecking order within the group; during the mating season, a cock is accompanied by one or more hens

Habitat at the zoo:

Kaeng Krachan Elephant Park