Hobbies And Interests
Rooster Habitat Back Then
Wild chickens and their male counterparts, roosters, have lived in India and East Asia since 7,000 B.C. Chickens were domesticated by 3,000 B.C., and their eggs were harvested for food by the humans who kept them. Chickens spread west to Africa by 2,500 B.C. Before roosters and chickens were domesticated, however, they roamed free on hillsides near the edge of forests, eating mainly insects. Roosters still live in the wild in parts of the world today including Romania and Kuai where they interact with the human populations, scavenging for what they can. In Romania, roosters eat mainly pine buds as well as some insects.
Modern Rooster Habitat
Domestic chickens, including roosters, are raised today on both small and commercial farms. Such chickens are thoroughly domesticated animals, dependent on their human caregivers for shelter and food. Domestic roosters primarily eat corn feed. Roosters have many predators, including dogs, wolves, foxes and cats. Therefore, farmers must keep them in coops, or small houses, to keep their predators away from them. Some farmers keep free-range chickens and roosters, allowing them to move about freely on their property as opposed to keeping them in coops continually.
Rooster Physical Traits
Roosters cannot fly. A domestic chicken lives an average of five years. Roosters are distinguished from female chickens, or hens, by bright red skin on either side of their beaks and a few red skinlike feathers protruding from the top of their beak. These traits make living in a wild habitat difficult for roosters to escape predators. Therefore, the life spans of wild chickens are typically not as long as those for domestic chickens.
Rooster Mating Habits
Roosters are social animals and are polygamous, meaning they mate with multiple female hens. Roosters are also very protective of the females they mate with. While they can't protect multiple nests at once, they will often perch on a branch or ledge of a building above a coop where the hens roost and will guard them vigilantly from any other roosters that seek to mate with the hens. Roosters mate with hens all throughout the year. Roosters are also incredibly territorial. If a rooster encounters another rooster, a bloody fight will ensue, often continuing until one of the roosters dies.