The green peafowl Pavo muticus is a bird that has
always fascinated man by its beauty and extraordinary
thousand-eyed fanning tail. Unfortunately,
its large size, combined with its a! ractive dress, are
the very reason for its predicament (Tan et al., 2000).
The species has a large ancestral range spreading
from Northeast India, east to Vietnam, north
to Southern China and south to Java. It was once
common and widespread in various forest habitats
and grasslands, mostly in lowlands, but has undergone
a dramatic decline in the 20th century. The
green peafowl is now extinct in several countries
and subsists in very fragmented and small populations
in the others. The only sizeable remaining
populations are found in Cambodia, Myanmar, and
west-central Vietnam (BirdLife International, 2009).
In Cambodia, it is a resident of dry dipterocarp
and semi-evergreen forests with permanent water