Consider the magnificent tail of the male peacock. The flamboyance of the plumage fanning out to display multiple colours makes it an arresting sight to behold. But not everyone has been similarly enamored. As Charles Darwin wrote in April 1860, the mere sight of a peacock, “makes me sick!”. The problem for Darwin was that the peacock’s tail made no evolutionary sense. The bird’s feathers can reach up to six-feet long and make up almost 60 per cent of its body length. Not only does the peacock’s tail therefore make him more visible to predators, it also makes him easier to catch as the additional load slows him down and handicaps his ability to fly. Subsequently, however, the extravagance of a male peacock’s tail has been found to be directly related to his levels of testosterone. A study found that peacocks with bigger plumes have healthier offspring while those with fewer eyespots enjoy less luck with lady peacocks and have a weaker immune system to boot. From a mating perspective, in other words, if you’re a male peacock it pays if your plume shakes the room. The reason for this quick treatise on feather-bound physiology is that your fancy watch…
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