What does a female peacock chose a mate based on?
The male peacock’s tail and dance is basically a display of health. Carrying around and maintaining such a large and visible tail is a considerable penalty – it takes energy to maintain and carry it and places the male at greater risk from predators. The display dance is also a demonstration that the male is in peak physical condition. So the combination of the tail and the dance announce to the female that the male is strong, fit and healthy and therefore a suitable father of her chicks. In other words, both tail and dance indicate that the male has “energy” – which in a more scientific sense means health and fitness to breed. Selecting an unhealthy male would more likely result in sickly unhealthy chicks – which would mean the female would be wasting valuable time and energy rearing offspring who are less likely to pass on her genes to future generations.
