An Indian judge has claimed that peacocks do not mate, but sire their offspring through tears.

“A peacock is a lifelong celibate” said Justice Mahesh Chandra Sharma of the Rajasthan High Court in western India on Wednesday.

On his last day as a judge in the state capital, Jaipur, Mr Sharma went on to claim that the peahen gets pregnant after swallowing the peacock’s tears and a peacock or peahen is then born.

Mr Sharma made these remarks immediately after delivering a judgment in which he recommended that the cow, considered holy by India’s majority Hindu community, be declared India’s national animal. The peacock is already the country’s national bird.