The Italian village that was ran rampant by peacocks
When it comes to animals, some of us are dog people, others are cat people. Not me, though, this humble writer is a bird person. Go ahead, I’ve heard all the Rick and Morty jokes, try and find a new one. I have to realise that this is a strange preference, though I can’t fathom personally why that is.
I know for a fact that people find birds off-putting. Sure, if your be-all and end-all for animals is how cuddly they are, then there aren’t many options for you. Other than cockatiels, cockatoos and most doves. Hand rear them, and they’ll love you. However, I have to accept that people have their own opinions (no matter how ill thought-out they may be) and I also have to accept that the fate that befell the tiny Italian village of Punta Marina was, in fact, a bad thing.
An idyllic little slice of the north-east coast of Italy, Punta Marina is a vision of paradise so stereotypical it’s almost comical. Every inch of it looks like the business end of a postcard. White sands, lush green spaces, a little touristy, but not enough to disrupt your peace. Life there should have been bliss. Even the wildlife is incredible, as its nearby to Po Delta Park.
If you headed down to Punta Marina in 2022, you probably would have seen a few peacocks on your travels, and if you’re anything like me, that would have been one of the highlights of your holiday. One of the most spectacularly beautiful creatures on the planet strutting about for your viewing pleasure, often happy to display its awe-inspiring plumage in exchange for something to eat.
For holiday-makers, it would be a treat. But for the people who actually live there, it became a huge problem.
It began with a resident of the area who kept a number of peafowl as pets. As if anyone needed proof that keeping exotic creatures as pets is a bad idea, the resident freed them around 15 years ago and from then on, the peafowl did what any creature would do. They bred.
Over the course of that decade and a half, the peafowl population of the small town began to grow and grow. At first, obviously, this was a welcome surprise. After all, who wouldn’t want to see a bunch of lovely peacocks on the way to work, shaking their plumage like rent is due?
The trouble is that peacocks are only fun if you can leave afterwards. If you can’t get rid of them, they’re massive, hungry and incredibly loud. What’s more, before anyone could do anything about it, there were 200 of them in Punta Marina, and suddenly, this became less a delightful surprise and more a version of The Birds directed by RuPaul.
By 2022, it had gone far beyond a joke. People were having their roofs, cars and gardens ruined by nesting peacocks. Not a minute in the town went by without their ear-piercing, wailing call breaking the silence. The residents of the town were getting fed up, and the local council began capturing the birds and rehoming them to parks and resorts across Italy that asked for them.
In the end, Igor Gallonetto, a local animal welfare and ecology officials put it best in an interview with The Times, “Peacocks are great until you find four of them using your garden as a lavatory.”