Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Hel­meted guinea fowl are dis­trib­uted across most of Sub-Sa­hara Africa. They range as far west as Sene­gal and east­ward to Er­itrea at the north edge of their range, and south­ward to South Africa as the fur­thest south­ern range. (Mayntz, 2009)

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • native

Habi­tat

Hel­meted guinea fowl are found in ex­posed areas that have some trees for them to roost upon at night. These in­clude grass­lands, sa­van­nas, cul­ti­vated areas and scrub lands. These birds occur fre­quently around areas with water, pri­mar­ily fresh­wa­ter rivers or wa­ter­ing holes. These birds dis­like dense forests, deserts and marshes. (Ayeni, 1983a; IUCN, 2016; Mayntz, 2009; Rat­cliffe and Crowe, 2001)

• Habitat Regions
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• scrub forest

• Aquatic Biomes
• rivers and streams

• Other Habitat Features
• suburban
• agricultural

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Hel­meted guinea fowl are ground birds that have a body shaped sim­i­lar to a chicken and a grouse. They have a boney "hel­met", known as a casque. The casque lies on top of the crown of the birds and both males and fe­males have them. Male casques are usu­ally larger than the casques of fe­males. The bill is curved with red, fleshy skin fur­ther back on the lore. They have eyes that ap­pear black but are dark brown. Their wat­tles are sky blue to dark blue with red at the tips. Fe­males have smaller wat­tles com­pared to males. The sides of their heads at the ear-covert down to the mid­dle of the neck are bare and are a sky blue to dark blue color. The lower sec­tion of the neck has down-like feath­ers that are brown­ish-grey in color. The body, wings and thighs are cov­ered in black to dark grey feath­ers with uni­formed speck­les of white. Each feather can have up to a dozen or more speck­les on them. The legs and feet are dark grey. Ju­ve­niles are sim­i­lar to the adults with the ex­cep­tions of less de­vel­oped wat­tles and casques. Their faces are paler than the adults, the speck­les are less vis­i­ble and their over­all col­oration is gray­ish brown. The chicks, known as keets, have lon­gi­tu­di­nal black stripes on their heads that are brown and are brown­ish grey in their body feath­ers. There are nine sub­species of hel­meted guinea fowl in Africa. Dif­fer­ences vary from head col­orations, casques, speckle arrange­ment, neck feath­ers and other lit­tle de­tails that are minute. (Frost, 2013; Mayntz, 2009; Myers, et al., 2018)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Range mass

  1134 to 1842 g

  39.96 to 64.92 oz

• Range length

  51 to 64 mm

  2.01 to 2.52 in

• Range wingspan

  150 to 180 cm

  59.06 to 70.87 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Hel­meted Guinea Fowl mate sea­son­ally after win­ter, chang­ing from mixed flocks to paired birds. Males are known to be polyg­y­nous with fe­males but will end up monog­a­mous dur­ing the in­cu­ba­tion pe­riod of the eggs. Males will chase and fight other male Hel­meted Guinea Fowl to deter them from ap­proach­ing their part­ner. Males and fe­males will stay to­gether for five weeks and are in­sep­a­ra­ble. They com­mu­ni­cate with each other con­tin­u­ously, roost to­gether at night and preen each other dur­ing this time. (A-Z-Animals.​com, 2017; Elbin, et al., 1986; Frost, 2013; Mayntz, 2009)

• Mating System
• monogamous
• polygynous
• cooperative breeder

Hel­meted guinea fowl mate in the spring, chang­ing from mixed flocks to paired birds. Males are known to be polyg­y­nous with fe­males but will end up monog­a­mous dur­ing the in­cu­ba­tion pe­riod of the eggs. Males will chase and fight other males to deter them from ap­proach­ing their part­ner. Males and fe­males will stay to­gether for five weeks and are in­sep­a­ra­ble. They com­mu­ni­cate with each other con­tin­u­ously, roost to­gether at night and preen each other dur­ing this time.

Hel­meted guinea fowl fe­males dig scrapes in dense veg­e­ta­tion areas with twigs and leaves within the nest. The fe­male will lay around six to fif­teen eggs within the de­pres­sion and in­cu­bate them for up to thirty days. The male pro­tects the fe­male from other Hel­meted guinea fowl and preda­tors that might find the nest and feed the fe­male. The eggs are a cream-brown col­oration, shaped sim­i­lar the pears, with a length of 53 mm and width of 40 mm. After thirty days, the eggs hatch and “keets”, term for chicks, are born. The keets for­age with the par­ents once hatched as both par­ents de­fend them from dan­gers. Keets be­come fledged in four weeks. The keets stay with the par­ent group for at least fifty to sev­enty five days be­fore be­com­ing in­de­pen­dent. Keets be­come sex­u­ally ma­ture after a year. (A-Z-Animals.​com, 2017; Elbin, et al., 1986; Frost, 2013; Mayntz, 2009)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Helmeted Guinea Fowl breed once a year.

• Breeding season

  Spring to Summer.

• Range eggs per season

  6 to 15

• Average eggs per season

  10

• Range time to hatching

  26 to 30 days

• Range fledging age

  28 to 30 days

• Average fledging age

  28 days

• Range time to independence

  50 to 75 days

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  1 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  1 years

Fe­male Hel­meted guinea fowl brood the keets dur­ing the night while male roosts. Males will brood the keets dur­ing the day as the fe­male for­ages dur­ing the first two weeks since hatch­ing. (Elbin, et al., 1986)

• Parental Investment
• male parental care
• female parental care
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Hel­meted guinea fowl live up to ten to twenty years in the wild. There is no lit­er­a­ture on life ex­pectancy on do­mes­tic birds. (A-Z-Animals.​com, 2017)

Be­hav­ior

Hel­meted guinea fowl flocks roost in trees for pro­tec­tion at night. Dur­ing the day, they are al­ways on the ground for­ag­ing for food in flocks of vary­ing size. Some flocks can con­sist of a sin­gle male and fe­male to large flocks with up to 100 birds. Flocks have ter­ri­to­ries that they wan­der around and do get into fights with other flocks but there is not enough lit­er­a­ture on de­ter­min­ing sizes of the ter­ri­to­ries. Dur­ing win­ter, flocks are largest and dur­ing the mat­ing sea­son, mated pairs dis­perse to in­cu­bate their eggs. As they for­age on the ground, they con­sis­tently vo­cal­ize and search for dan­ger, using their eye site to de­tect move­ment and hear­ing to pin­point dan­ger. When faced with dan­ger, they use their alarm calls to warn other birds and sur­round­ing fauna. They typ­i­cally run from dan­ger but can fly as a last re­sort in a steep up­ward angle. Hel­meted Guinea Fowl have a so­cial hi­er­ar­chy when in larger flocks as the birds con­tin­u­ously chase and fight each other to de­ter­mine sta­tus. Ju­ve­niles show sub­mis­sive be­hav­ior to older birds if they since dan­ger. Hel­meted guinea fowl use dust baths to clean their plumage daily. (A-Z-Animals.​com, 2017; Elbin, et al., 1986; Evans, 2017; Frost, 2013; Mayntz, 2009; Niek­erk, 1985; Rat­cliffe and Crowe, 2001)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• terricolous
• diurnal
• crepuscular
• motile
• social

Home Range

Flocks have ter­ri­to­ries that they won­der around and do get into fights with other flocks but there is not enough lit­er­a­ture on de­ter­min­ing sizes of the ter­ri­to­ries. (Rat­cliffe and Crowe, 2001)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Hel­meted guinea fowl have harsh, dry calls that can carry vast dis­tances. Males make a sin­gle "chek" sound, while fe­males make two notes that are repet­i­tive going "buck-wheat". Their calls in­crease in vol­ume and tempo when they are ex­cited, ag­gra­vated or if they since dan­ger. The alarm call is a very loud, harsh, re­peat­ing rat­tling "kek-kek-kek-kek-kr­rrrrrrrr". (Frost, 2013; Mayntz, 2009)

• Communication Channels
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Hel­meted guinea fowl are om­niv­o­rous. In the wild, their plant diet in­clude grass seeds, grain, seedlings, leaves, bulbs, roots, fruit and flower heads. Sources of pro­tein in their diet con­sist of snails, bee­tles, in­sect lar­vae, ticks, var­i­ous in­ver­te­brates, frogs, small lizards and small mice. They also in­gest small peb­bles for their giz­zards. Their meth­ods to ob­tain their food sources in­clude dig­ging and run­ning with their legs, pluck­ing, flick­ing and jab­bing with their beak and jump­ing to reach out to food.

In do­mes­tic stock, they are fed pri­mar­ily com­mer­cial chicken diets, ce­real grains, gar­den and kitchen wastes, maize, sorghum and mil­let. Com­pared to chick­ens, hel­meted guinea fowl re­quire higher pro­tein in­take and this has been prob­lem­atic due to de­bate on their re­quire­ments in a do­mes­tic set­ting. This has led to prob­lems in their growth and egg pro­duc­tion in many areas of the world. (Ayeni, 1983b; Frost, 2013; Mayntz, 2009; Moreki and Radikara, 2013)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats terrestrial vertebrates
  • insectivore
  • eats non-insect arthropods
  • molluscivore
  • vermivore
• herbivore
  • folivore
  • frugivore
  • granivore
• omnivore

• Animal Foods
• mammals
• amphibians
• reptiles
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods
• mollusks
• terrestrial worms

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit
• flowers

Pre­da­tion

Hel­meted guinea fowl are preyed upon by a va­ri­ety of an­i­mals along with their eggs. Known preda­tors in­clude leop­ards (Pan­thera par­dus), ser­vals (Lep­tail­u­rus ser­val), wild­cats (Felis sivestris), dogs (Canis lupus. fa­mil­iaris), wolves (Canis lupus), large rep­tiles that in­clude croc­o­diles (Croc­o­dyli­nae) and snakes (Ser­pentes) and Mar­tial Ea­gles (Pole­mae­tus bel­li­co­sus).

Hel­meted guinea fowl are game­birds in Africa and are hunted for their meat and for sport. They are con­sid­ered a smart bird and give hunters a chal­lenge when hunt­ing them. Do­mes­tic Hel­meted guinea fowl are raised to be processed into poul­try and as an egg lay­ing fowl. (A-Z-Animals.​com, 2017; Evans, 2017; Moreki and Radikara, 2013; Over­holt, 2011; Smith­son­ian Chan­nel, 2014; Smith­son­ian Chan­nel, 2016)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• aposematic

• Known Predators

  • leopards (Panthera pardus)
  • servals (Leptailurus serval)
  • wildcats (Felis sivestris)
  • dogs (Canis lupus. familiaris)
  • wolves (Canis lupus)
  • crocodiles (Crocodylinae)
  • snakes (Serpentes)
  • Martial eagles (Polemaetus bellicosus).

Ecosys­tem Roles

Hel­meted Guinea Fowl house many par­a­sites in­clud­ing Het­er­akis gal­li­narum, As­caridia galli, Cap­il­laria caud­in­flata, Rail­li­eti­nate­trag­ona, Rail­li­etina echi­noboth­rida, Eime­ria species, Leu­co­cy­to­zoan species, Plas­mod­ium species, Ae­gyp­tianella pul­lo­rum, Argas per­si­cus, and a genus of Lice, Dama­linia. (Ayeni, et al., 1983)

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Hel­meted guinea fowl have been hunted for thou­sands of years in Africa and are hunted today as a pop­u­lar game bird. These birds have been do­mes­ti­cated for their meat, eggs and feath­ers and are a grow­ing in pop­u­lar­ity in var­i­ous coun­tries for these re­sources and as an ex­otic farm an­i­mal. Many Zoos house these unique birds for ed­u­ca­tion and aviaries house them for their ex­otic look. They are also a bird many tourist and Bird­ers want to see on Sa­fari in Africa. These birds are used as tick and in­sect con­trol in agri­cul­tural fields and have been known to con­sume in­fected Deer ticks with Lyme dis­ease. (A-Z-Animals.​com, 2017; Duffy, et al., 1992; Evans, 2017; Frost, 2013; Mayntz, 2009; Moreki and Radikara, 2013)

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade
• food
• body parts are source of valuable material
• ecotourism
• research and education
• produces fertilizer
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Hel­meted guinea fowl are known to dam­age crops, es­pe­cially emerg­ing seedlings. They are also a noisy bird and can cause headaches and mi­graines to peo­ple around them. They are a dif­fi­cult bird to raise, since they are newer to a world mar­ket. Many farm­ers have lost money due to not un­der­stand­ing how to raise these birds prop­erly. (Duffy, et al., 1992; Frost, 2013; Moreki and Radikara, 2013)

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Hel­meted Guinea Fowl are listed as least con­cerned ac­cord­ing to the IUCN Red List. (IUCN, 2016)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern

• US Migratory Bird Act

  No special status

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Matthew Port­ner (au­thor), North­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­sity, Alec Lind­say (ed­i­tor), North­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­sity, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

"Hel­meted Guineafowl" (On-line). whatBird.​com. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 21, 2018 at https://​identify.​whatbird.​com/​obj/​1305/​overview/​Helmeted_​Guineafowl.​aspx.

A-Z-Animals.​com, 2017. "Guinea Fowl" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 22, 2018 at https://​a-z-animals.​com/​animals/​guinea-fowl/​.

Ade­ola, A., S. Ommeh, R. Mur­phy, S. Wu, M. Peng, Y. Zhang. 2015. Mi­to­chon­dr­ial DNA vari­a­tion of Niger­ian do­mes­tic hel­meted guinea fowl. An­i­mal Ge­net­ics, Vol­ume 46 / Issue 5: 576-579.

Ayeni, J. 1983. The Bi­ol­ogy and uti­liza­tion of hel­meted guinea-fowl (Nu­mida me­lea­gria galeata Pal­las) in Nige­ria. II. Food of hel­meted guinea-fowl in Kainji Lake Basin area of Nige­ria, Vol­ume 21 / Issue 1: 1-10.

Ayeni, J. 1983. Stud­ies of Grey Breasted Hel­met Guineafowl (Nu­mida me­lea­gris galeata Pal­las) in Nige­ria. World's Poutry Sci­ence Jour­nal, Vol­ume 39 / Issue 2: 143-151.

Ayeni, J., O. Dipeolu, A. Okaeme. 1983. Par­a­sitic in­fec­tions of the grey-breasted hel­met guinea-fowl (Nu­mida me­lea­gris galeata) in Nige­ria. Vet­eri­nary Par­a­sitol­ogy, Vol­ume 12/ Issue 1: "59-63". Ac­cessed April 09, 2018 at https://​www.​sciencedirect.​com/​science/​article/​pii/​0304401783900882.

Duffy, D., R. Downer, C. Brink­ley. 1992. The Ef­fec­tive­ness of Hel­meted Guineafowl in the Con­trol of the Deer Tick, the Vec­tor of Lyme Dis­ease. The Wil­son Bul­letin, Vol­ume 104 / Issue 2: 342-345.

Elbin, S., T. Crowe, H. Graves. 1986. Re­pro­duc­tive be­hav­ior of Hel­meted Guinea Fowl (Nu­mida me­lea­gria): Mat­ing sys­tem and parental care. Ap­plied An­i­mal Be­hav­iour Sci­ence, Vol­ume 16 / Issue 2: 179- 197.

Evans, W. 2017. "Guinea fowl - oh that clever­est of African birds!" (On-line). African Hunt­ing Gazette. Ac­cessed March 22, 2018 at https://​www.​africanhuntinggazette.​com/​guinea-fowl-oh-that-cleverest-of-african-birds/​.

Frost, P. 2013. "Hel­meted guineafowl" (On-line). New Zealand Birds On­line. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 21, 2018 at http://​nzbirdsonline.​org.​nz/​species/​helmeted-guineafowl.

Gatesy, S. 1999. Guineafowl hind limb func­tion. I: Cin­era­di­ographic analy­sis and speed ef­fects. Jour­nal of Mor­phol­ogy, Vol­ume 240 / Issue 2: 115-125.

IUCN, 2016. "Nu­mida me­lea­gris" (On-line). Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 21, 2018 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​details/​22679555/​0.

Mayntz, M. 2009. "Hel­meted Guineafowl" (On-line). The Spruce. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 21, 2018 at https://​www.​thespruce.​com/​helmeted-guineafowl-profile-385894.

Moreki, J., M. Radikara. 2013. Chal­lenges to Com­mer­cial­iza­tion of Guinea Fowl in Africa. In­ter­na­tional Jour­nal of Sci­ence and Re­search, Vol­ume 2 / Issue 11: "436-440". Ac­cessed Jan­u­ary 30, 2018 at file:///C:/Users/mport­ner/Zotero/stor­age/TWXGIUNZ/Chal­lenges_­to_­Com­mer­cial­iza­tion_of_Guine.pdf.

Myers, R., C. Es­pinosa, T. Parr, G. Ham­mond, T. Dewey. 2018. "ADW: Nu­mida me­lea­gris: CLAS­SI­FI­CA­TION" (On-line). An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 26, 2018 at https://​animaldiversity.​org/​accounts/​Numida_​meleagris/​classification/​.

Niek­erk, J. 2002. Notes on habi­tat use by hel­meted guineafowl in the Krugers­dorp Game Re­serve, South Africa : short com­mu­ni­ca­tions. South African Jour­nal of Wildlife Re­search, Vol­ume 32 / Issue 2: 166-168.

Niek­erk, J. 1985. Sub­mis­sive dis­play in young hel­meted guineafowl. South African Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, Vol­ume 20 / Issue 1: 38-38.

Over­holt, M. 2011. "Pole­mae­tus bel­li­co­sus mar­tial eagle" (On-line). An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web. Ac­cessed March 22, 2018 at https://​animaldiversity.​org/​accounts/​Polemaetus_​bellicosus/#​predation.

Rat­cliffe, C., T. Crowe. 2001. Habi­tat util­i­sa­tion and home range size of hel­meted guineafowl (Nu­mida me­lea­gris) in the Mid­lands of KwaZulu-Na­tal province, South Africa. Bi­o­log­i­cal Con­ser­va­tion, Vol­ume 98 / Issue 3: 333-345.

Smith­son­ian Chan­nel, 2016. "Leop­ard vs. Guinea Fowl" (On-line video). YouTube. Ac­cessed March 22, 2018 at https://​www.​youtube.​com/​watch?​v=1mi-L8ecIT4.

Smith­son­ian Chan­nel, 2014. "Ser­val Vs. Guinea Fowl" (On-line video). YouTube. Ac­cessed March 22, 2018 at https://​www.​youtube.​com/​watch?​v=ykGr4QPlvtY.