I had not realized that they were a problem in southern California. I’ve never seen a feral one in Manhattan or Redondo Beach, but apparently it’s an issue up on the Palos Verdes peninsula. We’ve seen parrots, but not peafowel.
10 thoughts on “Peacocks”
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I didn’t realize that NBC was such a problem in Southern California.
NBC is a problem everywhere.
They are at the Los Angeles Arboretum (across the street from Santa Anita Race Track). We visited the Arboretum recently, and yes, they are loud.
My bet is that they are highly dependent on suburban areas to survive, both for a food source and to discourage wild predators like coyotes or mountain lions.
I’ve never seen a feral one in Manhattan or Redondo Beach, but apparently it’s an issue up on the Palos Verdes peninsula.
Given that they aren’t far away from Palos Verdes, maybe they aggressively scoop up peacocks.
Yeah, they’re all over PV. They aren’t graceful landers. They make a loud thump when they land on your roof. The first time I heard it, made me wonder how they survive the landing.
How do they taste? Put the foodies on population control.
The article described the same phenomenon that causes such headaches in my neck of the woods with regards to the deer population. Most people tolerate them, some people hate them, and some people have such an abnormal admiration for them that they will set out food for them every night. Same for squirrels, feral cats, chipmunks…
The picture of the woman who has been threatened to be banned for life from the Arboretum for illegally feeding the peacocks looks pretty much like what I expected her to look like, even with a wig on. If she wasn’t feeding peafowl, she’d probably have 25 cats instead. Maybe she does.
First time I ever saw peacocks outside of India was in Florida, near the Canaveral seaport. One neighborhood was lousy with the things, and there was crap everywhere (which made it clear they liked to sit on cars.)
One guy I stopped to talk to said a baseball bat works just fine, but they just keep coming back.
I’ve even seen peacock here in Northern Arizona. I have no clue how the thing survived here (it’s snow country) but I did see its remains on the edge of a neighborhood. It has been eaten, but plenty of the plume feathers were still around. The tracks indicated a mountain lion was what got it.
We had parrots in Palms, and Peacocks in N. Burbank/Glendale.
Now all I have to worry about is the occasional bear.
The Leo Carrillo rancho in North San Diego county (Carlsbad, to be specific) has a flock of peacock/peahen which have been there for 90+ years. The rancho is a National Historical site too. AFAIK, the population is stable at a few dozen; don’t know if that’s actively managed or not.