Red Jungle Fowl

So we also went to the Darjeeling Zoo yesterday. It's certainly not on the level of the Bronx Zoo, but it's nice. The animals were entirely of the Himalayan region, and there were some I hadn't seen before. For most people, the highlights would be the Tibetan Wolf, Snow Leopard, Himalayan Black Bear, or Red Panda. But not for me. I found the Red Jungle Fowl to be the most interesting.

The Red Jungle Fowl is a pheasant native to the temperate regions around the Himalayas in India, China, and Burma. I grew up in Pennsylvania, where pheasants abound, so it might seem strange that I would find this one interesting. But the Red jungle Fowl is an unusually meaty bird that looks quite tasty. After reading the sign, it was obvious that I'm far from the first person to hold that opinion. The Chinese domesticated the Red Jungle Fowl thousands of years ago. The result of that domestication is our modern day chicken. So when you go to KFC, remember that you are eating a descendent of the red Jungle Fowl. I often wondered where chickens came from, and now I know. And so do you.

The Red Jungle Fowl also brings up an interesting point about evolution. It seems that those who advocate Intelligent Design are actually partially correct. Many of the plants and animals we are familiar with really were intelligently designed. But they were designed by humans. Dogs, pigs, chickens, wheat, rice, pecans and many other food sources are nothing like their natural ancestors. But they are tastier, easier to digest, and higher yielding.