If any bird can claim to be bound up with the culture and history of Myanmar, it’s the peacock.
A dancing peacock was adopted as the symbol of the Konbaung dynasty monarchy, while the decades-long struggle for democracy has been represented by the fighting peacock.
But now, the birds are at risk of being driven to extinction by poachers who hunt them for their valuable meat, a wildlife researcher has warned.
“A peacock fetches around K700,00 ($600),” Zay Maung Thein told a conference on bird species yesterday, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar.
He argued for measures to be put in place to protect the birds, which are found in Pyin Oo Lwin and the Hlawga Wildlife Park near Yangon.
Myanmar is home to a subspecies of peacock called the green peafowl which is, naturally, green.
