EFFECT OF SPACING ON REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF INDIAN PEAFOWL (Pavo cristatus) IN CAPTIVITY

Effective use of available cage spaces in wild bird breeding systems in captivity is ofprime economic concern. Present study was carried out at Punjab Wildlife Research InstituteFaisalabad to evaluate effect of cage sizes on reproductive performance of the Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus). Three groups; A, B and C of Indian Peafowl were selected and nurtured under threedifferent cage sizes, viz. 30, 21 and 12 square meters with an available space of 10, 7 and 4 square meters per bird, respectively. The birds were kept with a sex ratio of 1 male:2 female. Number of male mounting, egg production (average number of eggs laid per hen), average egg weight, percent egghatchability, percent egg fertility and chicks’ average weight were found significantly higher (P˂0.01)in Indian Peafowl reared in 21m2 cage size, followed by cage sizes of 30, and12 m2 respectively. Thisstudy indicated that, in case of Indian Peafowl, the breeding flock kept at intermediate cage spacingperformed better than that kept at large spacing or at too narrow spacing.