Peacock Tries "Faking it" to Find a Mate | BBC Earth

This Californian park is bursting with peacocks, proudly displaying their 200 tail feathers and vibrating their colorful eye spots to show off their fitness. But sometimes playing by the rules just isn't enough to get you noticed. It's a problem that this male, known as Sam, is all too familiar with. He's having a bad day. He's been strutting all morning. To anyone who will pay attention. I think he's getting a bit frisky with me. Shaking his tail feathers at me. Sam's day has been unsuccessful and it's about to get worse. One of his rivals is closing in on a peahen. He proclaims his victory with an earth shattering. This is the sound a peacock makes when he successfully wooed a female. Sam, on the other hand, seems rather deflated. And worse still, his opponent's trademark mating hoot appears to have drawn in a bevy of other peahens wanting in on the action. It's time for a new plan. It seems that some males are resorting to some interesting cheating behavior. More victorious mating hoots. And this time they come from Sam. Except he still doesn't have a mate. He's faking it. But the lure of his hoot is apparently too much for this female to resist. She seems to have fallen for his deceitful tactics.