City zoo has female pheasants

LUCKNOW: Females are known to give their maximum to matrimony. Most often their individuality. The three female pheasants at Lucknow Zoo have gone steps beyond by losing their ‘lady-like’ looks and adorning the looks of their partners.
Being with their male partners for more than 18 years and having raised families together, the ‘ladies’ have turned ‘gentlemen’, losing their female physical characters almost completely."I have never come across anything like this before," said Siyaram, the retired head keeper, whose association with the place is several years old. The three females in question are white peacock, golden pheasant and a silver pheasant. It was the silver pheasant that showed the signs for the first time in 2008. This 20-something brown-coloured pheasant, oldest in the community within the boundaries of the zoo, had become black with a tinge of white on wings, tails and crown.
Now, as she sits pretty in her enclosure with her new masculine features, her near neighbours — the white peacock and golden pheasant — have gradually joined the league. The female white peacock has got its feathers grown and the golden pheasant has got a golden tinge over her head.
The crown, strictly a male feature, is visible on their heads.
"It is a hormonal change. As the birds are old, their female hormones have turned recessive and the male hormones have become dominant," said Zoo director Renu Singh. Interestingly, none of these birds have laid eggs ever since they started exhibiting the change.