Gallus gallus the parent of domestic fowl

The domestic chicken that we can eat today is the result of domestication jungle fowl by our ancestors. They taken care of jungle fowl and selected the good fowl. at least, there are four kind of jungle fowl. Here are:

Gallus galls or Galus bankiva is the great grand parent of all domestic fowl. Now, we can see the descent of gallus-gallus give us chicken meat and fresh eggs. The habitat of this fowl are India, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, and Sumatra.

The male or the  roster  is red partridge in , while  the female color is brown or black. The weight of the male just one kilo, meanwhile the female is 700 grams. The female can lay the eggs up to six.

They live at the low jungle, farm crop, and settlement. They find foot at jungle ground. The diet of this bird is grain, grass, leaf, worm, and insect.
Photo by: YIM Hafiz

The bird has beautiful sing. Its sing is more beautiful than domestic cock. Some breeder crossbreed the bird with native chicken. It result a new strain with good voice. The price of the hybrid is more expensive than the red jungle fowl.

Green jungle Fowl

Green Jungle Fowl or Gallus Varius is a one kind of Jungle fowl too. They can found in Borneo, Java, Komodo Island, Bali, Flores and Rinca. They live at covered  jungle.

The color of the fowl is green with red saddle feather. The comb color is blue and red single. The female color is brown with black spot. The male wight is 1000 g in average; meanwhile, the female is 700 in average.

This cock has beautiful song too. In Indonesian, people cross breed it with native chicken. the hybrid is called Bekisar chicken. the price of Bekisar is very high. Some collector want to exchange their SUV with the chicken.


Gallus lafayetii

Grey Jungle fowl or Gallus lafayetti is a jungle fowl from ceylon or Srilanka. The performance is not different with green jungle fowl. The cock has grey partridge and the female has grey color.

This bird is an India endemic animal. The length of the cock could reach 80 cm, meanwhile the female is just 38 cm.In a season, a female can lay four to seven eggs.

Gallus sonneratii

Gallus sonneratii is a jungle fowl from Ceylon or Srilanka. The performance is almost similar with red jungle fowl. The color is red partridge and have a single comb.

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The domesticated process increase the ancestor quality

For more than ten thousand year, people have risen the chicken. Today, we can find hundreds strain of chicken which have different characteristics. Some chicken has different character to their ancestors, Gallus gallus bankiva or red jungle fowl but some domesticated still has the ancestors character like its feather, performance, or size.

In my country, people care Sumatra native chicken. American breed association named it Sumatra Chicken. The performance is similar with red jungle fowl but the Sumatra is heavier than the ancestors. It cannot fly high as the ancestors. The native Sumatra can lay up to 16 eggs; on the other hand, the red jungle fowl lay only seven eggs.

Some domesticated is heavier than the ancestors. For example Rhode Island red that is 4.5 kg weight or  four to five times the ancestors weight. It is because they do not have to fly again. People also feed the chicken with high quality food.

The feather of domesticated bird is also more beautiful than the ancestor. There are various kind of feather shape i.e. frizzle, silky, featherless. and others. The color of feather is not only red partridge. The domesticated have many color variations such as, black, white, calico, green partridge, buff, black green, and others.

In people's hand, the chicken is more productive than the ancestors. A red jungle fowl can lay up to 50 eggs in a year in forest but a domesticated can lay up to 300 eggs in a year.

The increasing quality caused by selecting process for more than thousands year. People tend to care the best breed whose has beautiful feather, nice song, prolific, short body, weight, and other.

read also : Indonesia native chicken