article_snippet: Charles Darwin first suggested that a peacock’s train serves to attract females and studies have since shown that females tend to prefer males with the most exaggerated male characteristics.
article_snippet: Amotz Zahavi said a peacock’s train indicates a male’s fitness.
article_snippet: Males with impressive trains have been shown to be healthier, suggesting that the ornament indicates a male’s ability to survive.
article_snippet: ‘handicap principle’ says that since males with particularly brightly coloured or large plumes will attract the attention of predators, males with particularly brightly coloured or large plumes will attract the attention of predators must be extra fit to survive.
article_snippet: Females are thought to choose mates with good genes, so males with more exaggerated sexual characteristics, such as a big train, tend to have better genes in a peahen’s eyes.
article_snippet: Marion Petrie tested whether the displays signal a male’s generic quality by studying a feral population of peafowl in Whipsnade Wildlife Park in England.
article_snippet: Marion Petrie found the number of eyespots in a peacock’s train predicted a male's mating success and that Marion Petrie could manipulate a male’s chances of mating success by cutting off some of a male’s eyespot tail feathers.
article_snippet: Furthermore, chicks fathered by males with impressive trains weighed more than those sired by less ornamented birds.