Wattle (anatomy)

A rooster's wattles hang from the throat


Wattles are often such a striking morphological characteristic of animals that it features in their common name. For example, the southern and northern cassowary are known as the double-wattled and single-wattled cassowary respectively and there is a breed of domestic pig known as the red wattle.



In birds, wattles are often an ornament for courting potential mates. Large wattles are correlated with high testosterone levels, good nutrition, and the ability to evade predators, which in turn indicates a potentially successful mate. It has also been proposed that ornamental organs such as wattles are associated with genes coding for disease resistance.[3] In umbrellabirds the wattle serves to amplify the birds' call. [4]


Southern hill myna in India showing yellow wattles on the head

Birds with wattles include:


Mammals with wattles include:

  • many domestic goats have fleshy, fur-covered protuberances, called tassels, hanging on either side of the throat;
  • some domestic pigs, such as the kunekune, Lithuanian Native pig and the Red Wattle pig, as a fleshy protuberance hanging either side of the throat.


See also


  3. ^ Baratti, Mariella; Ammannati, Martina; Magnelli, Claudia; Massolo, Alessandro; Dessì-Fulgheri, Francesco (2010). "Are large wattles related to particular MHC genotypes in the male pheasant?". Genetica. 138: 657–665. doi:10.1007/s10709-010-9440-5. PMID 20145977.
  4. ^ The Hutchinson encyclopedia - Page 1087 https://books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=1859862888 (Oxford) Helicon Publishing Ltd, Jane Anson, Michael Broers - 2000 - The Amazonian species Cephalopterus ornatus, the ornate umbrella bird, has an inflatable wattle at the neck to amplify its humming call, and in display elevates a long crest (12 cm/4 in) lying above the bill so that it rises umbrella-like above ...
  5. ^ "Hogan, C. Michael "Wild Turkey: Meleagris gallopavo", GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg 2008".
  6. ^ John White. 1790. Voyage to New South Wales