![]() | This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations . (November 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
Bekisar | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Galliformes |
Family: | Phasianidae |
Subfamily: | Phasianinae |
Genus: | Gallus |
Species: | |
The Bekisar, or Ayam Bekisar, is the first generation hybrid offspring of the green junglefowl (Gallus varius) and domesticated red junglefowl from Java (Gallus gallus bankiva). The roosters have a glossy blackish green plumage and are highly prized for their loud clear calls and striking colouration, while the hens are usually dull and infertile.
Bekisars were traditionally used by the original inhabitants of the Sunda Islands as symbolic or spiritual mascots on outrigger canoes, and consequently spread over a wide area. The original hybrids are rarely fertile (and hens are generally sterile), but backcrosses with domestic chicken are sometimes achieved and thus several landraces of Pacific chickens have some Bekisar ancestry. While the hybrid is only of historical interest in most regions, on Java it is still being produced as a more stereotyped breed with several local varieties, known as Ayam Bekisar.
The wild green junglefowl is a mangrove forest adapted species. Unlike the red junglefowl, the ancestor of most domestic chickens, it is adapted for life with little fresh water. During the dry season, and also on arid volcanic islands, the green junglefowl gets most of its water from dew in the coastal fog on fruits and insects. It also feeds on aquatic animals washed up on the shores and littoral pools, which red junglefowl are unable to do. At low tide, green junglefowl forage for starfish, small crabs, copepods and detritus. At high tide they fly to mangrove islets to roost. The far-carrying cries of the male green junglefowl can be heard over the breakers, even though their calls' volume is quite low in comparison to that of a domestic fowl or red junglefowl.
The practice of hybridisation is so ancient that it is not known precisely where it began. Modern Sundanese and Javanese people claim that it first occurred in the Kangean Islands in the Java Sea. The native peoples of the Sunda Archipelago learned that they could persuade young, unpaired wild green junglefowl males to mate with domestic game hens.
The progeny were used for communication between canoes. Each rooster has a unique voice, due to its hybrid ancestry. A rooster would be selected for its unusual voice, and hoisted up the mast of the canoe in a special bamboo basket. From their elevated baskets the roosters crowed incessantly in prolonged shrieking matches. The calls combine the prolonged notes of the green junglefowl with the added volume of domestic fowl, whose wild ancestors' voices had to be heard through dense vegetation. The Bekisar's voice can often be heard for two miles over the sea. The seafaring cultures took to keeping these male Bekisars on their canoes at all times.
When the native peoples of Java and the Sunda Islands migrated to Oceania and beyond, they brought with them dogs, pigs, yams, coconuts and chickens. Each migration brought a few dozen semi-domestic game fowl, not unlike those seen today running feral in tropical Asian villages. Anthropologists have provided evidence that only a very few boats in any flotilla carried domestic animals. Each seafaring vessel would, however, have carried at least two or three cages with Bekisars aboard. The chieftain and warriors may have carried even more Bekisars on each of their vessels.
Nearly every new migration of seafaring people brought game fowl (the semi-domestic chickens descended from the Indonesian red junglefowl Gallus bankiva) to their new island homes. The Bekisar roosters were also present in sufficient number to significantly affect each island's native base population of feral fowl. An escaped Bekisar was next to impossible to capture. A Bekisar rooster released into a tropical mangrove forested island in Oceania or the South Pacific would easily re-adapt to the wild, as if it were a wild green junglefowl.
Many of the more remote, typhoon-prone islands with very small or failed human colonies are the naturalized homes of wild junglefowl, described as violet-colored junglefowl by early European naturalists and considered a new species. Backcrossing of many generations of the hybrid Bekisar males with feral domestic game hens must occur before fertile females are produced. Female hybrid offspring of green junglefowl crossed with domestic fowl are always sterile, laying eggs which are incapable of being fertilized by either green or red junglefowl, or by domestic fowl. This means that backcrossing would be a common mode of self-perpetuation.
When competing clans, tribal wars, disease and typhoons extirpated or very nearly exterminated human populations or forced migrations, feral fowl, pigs and dogs would often remain on these remote islands. Natural predators such as monitor lizards, seabirds, pythons and other predators would hunt out the feral chickens with the most domesticated traits. Those incapable of flying or running rapidly would not live long enough to reproduce. Those incapable of surviving long periods without fresh water would also perish, and those lacking the appropriate instincts to survive frequent typhoons would also be selected against.
The Bekisar, with the progeny they generated by interbreeding with feral chickens, have adapted to local conditions. With each successive generation of backcrossing, the odds of a fertile hybrid female increase. At a certain point a genetic equilibrium is reached, and a fresh generation of viable females, capable of reproducing, is produced. Over the long run, some of the more remote islands, such as New Caledonia, Ponape, Marquesas, Rapa and Rapa Nui, became populated with flocks unique in appearance, not closely resembling either parental form.
When successive migrations of Polynesians carrying domestic fowl (derived from red junglefowl) appeared on these islands, most of the violaceous traits vanished through genetic swamping, only persisting on the most isolated islands. From these isolated island populations unique breeds have developed, in particular on Ponape, the Marquesas and Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The famous Araucana hens, named after the Araucanian Indians of Chile, are derived from these breeds. These breeds produce tinted blue, grey, lilac and green eggs. The green junglefowl is the only species of junglefowl that produces tinted eggs.
The Bekisar is the faunal symbol of East Java, a province of Indonesia. The male is used in East Java, Bali and the surrounding islands in popular vocal competitions; this practice has caused the decline of wild green junglefowl populations.
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes. The term also includes birds that are killed for their meat, such as the young of pigeons but does not include similar wild birds hunted for sport or food and known as game. The word "poultry" comes from the French/Norman word poule, itself derived from the Latin word pullus, which means small animal.
The chicken, a subspecies of the red junglefowl, is a type of domesticated fowl, originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult male bird. A younger male may be called a cockerel; a male that has been castrated is a capon. The adult female bird is called a hen. "Chicken" was originally a term only for an immature, or at least young, bird, but thanks to its usage on restaurant menus has now become the most common term for the subspecies in general, especially in American English. In older sources common fowl or domestic fowl were typically used for this.
Junglefowl are the only four living species of bird from the genus Gallus in the bird order Galliformes, and occur in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia. They diverged from their common ancestor about 4–6 million years ago.
A feral animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated specimens.
The Araucana is a breed of domestic chicken from Chile. Its name derives from the Araucanía region of Chile where it is believed to have originated. It lays blue-shelled eggs, one of very few breeds that do so.
The red junglefowl is a tropical bird in the family Phasianidae. It ranges across much of Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia. Red junglefowl are the primary ancestor of the domestic chicken ; the grey junglefowl, Sri Lankan junglefowl and green junglefowl have also contributed genetic material to the gene pool of the chicken.
The Sri Lankan junglefowl, also known as the Ceylon junglefowl or Lafayette's junglefowl, is a member of the Galliformes bird order which is endemic to Sri Lanka, where it is the national bird. It is closely related to the red junglefowl, the wild junglefowl from which the chicken was domesticated. However, a whole-genome molecular study rather show that Sri Lankan junglefowl and grey junglefowl are genetically sister species than with the red junglefowl. Sri Lankan junglefowl and red junglefowl diverged about 2.8 million years ago whereas, time of divergence between the Sri Lankan junglefowl and grey junglefowl was 1.8 million years ago.
The grey junglefowl, also known as Sonnerat's junglefowl, is one of the wild ancestors of the domestic chicken together with the red junglefowl and other junglefowls.
The green junglefowl, also known as Javan junglefowl, forktail or green Javanese junglefowl, is the most distantly related and the first to diverge at least 4 million years ago among the four species of the Junglefowl. Hybridization with domestic chicken has also been reported. Green junglefowl is a medium-sized bird in the pheasant family Phasianidae.
The Dominique, also known as Dominicker or Pilgrim Fowl, is a breed of chicken originating in the United States during the colonial period. It is considered America's oldest breed of chicken, probably descending from chickens brought to New England from southern England during colonial times. By the 19th century, they were widely popular and were raised in many parts of the country. Dominiques are a dual purpose breed, being valued for their meat as well as for their brown eggs. They weigh 6 to 8 pounds at maturity. In earlier times, their feathers were much sought after as stuffing for pillows and mattresses.
Sex-links are crossbred chickens whose color at hatching is differentiated by sex, thus making chick sexing an easier process. Sex-links come in several varieties. As hybrids of laying or dual-purpose breeds infused with extra vigor via heterosis, sex-links can be extremely good egg-layers which often produce 300 eggs a year or more depending on the quality of care and feed. The color of their eggs vary according to the mix of breeds, and blue-green eggs are possible.
Gamebird hybrids are the result of crossing species of game birds, including ducks, with each other and with domestic poultry. These hybrid species may sometimes occur naturally in the wild or more commonly through the deliberate or inadvertent intervention of humans.
The Java is a breed of chicken originating in the United States. Despite the breed's name, a reference to the island of Java, it was developed in the U.S. from chickens of unknown Asian extraction. It is one of the oldest American chickens, forming the basis for many other breeds, but is critically endangered today. Javas are large birds with a sturdy appearance. They are hardy, and are well-suited for both meat and egg production, especially by small-scale farms, homesteads, and backyard keepers.
The Iowa Blue is a breed of chicken that originated near Decorah, Iowa in the early 20th century. Despite its name, the breed is not actually blue according to poultry standards. It is an exceedingly rare fowl, and is not recognized for showing by the American Poultry Association. They are a dual-purpose breed laying brown eggs and known to be good foragers.
Feral chickens are derived from domestic chickens who have returned to the wild. Like the red junglefowl, feral chickens will roost in bushes in order to avoid predators at night.
The Ayam Cemani is an uncommon breed of chicken from Indonesia. They have a dominant gene that causes hyperpigmentation (fibromelanosis), making the chicken mostly black, including feathers, beak, and internal organs. The Cemani is a very popular gamecock for cockfighting in Bali. This is due to the fact that their thighs have much more muscle compared to other chickens which leads to them being much faster.
Ayam Pelung or Pelung Chicken is a poultry breed from Cianjur, Indonesia. The males (roosters) are considered to be "singing chickens", with contests being frequent in the Pelung area for the most melodious crowing. A full grown male may weigh 5-6 kg and stand up to 50 cm tall.
Solid black plumage color refers to a plumage pattern in chickens characterized by a uniform, black color across all feathers. There are chicken breeds where the typical plumage color is black, such as Australorp, Sumatra, White-Faced Black Spanish, Jersey Giant and others. And there are many other breeds having different color varieties, which also have an extended black variety, such as Leghorn, Minorca, Wyandotte, Orpington, Langshan and others.
The Ayam Kampong or Ayam Kampung is the chicken breed reported from Indonesia. The name means simply "free-range chicken" or literally "village chicken". In Indonesia, the term ayam kampung refer to indigenous chickens that are raised using traditional free range production techniques by almost every household in the village. It is a diverse population which resulted from the uncontrolled cross-breeding of red jungle-fowl, indigenous Southeast Asian chickens and exotic chickens of various types imported in the late 1800s by European, mainly Dutch and British, settlers.