Barbara,
Peafowl are feral on Rottnest
Island off Perth
and these are, as far as I am aware, the only “genuine” feral
population in Australia
and are considered “tick-able” for the Australian list if you are
using Christidis and Boles as your Australian authority. I have no doubts that
there are other feral populations in Australia and indeed feel that the
Narrabundah birds, because they are a self sustaining population, could and
probably should qualify as a tick-able feral population. When I was working at
CSIRO years ago a colleague told me of a female Peafowl he saw in Monga (then) State Forest
with 9 chicks. To the best of his knowledge there was no housing within miles.
Mark
From:
Barbara Preston [
Sent: Monday, 8 February 2010
10:47 AM
To: Philip Veerman; 'Peter Ormay'
Cc: 'Canberra Birds'
Subject: [canberrabirds] Re:
Spam:******, [canberrabirds] Peafowl update
Have
peafowls ever been known to become feral?
Lots
of country folk have had them over the last century or so. I've seen them in
old photos, and my parents had them (almost always a breeding
pair) for 30+ years in their large garden 30k from the nearest town,
but I did not ever know of the peafowls leaving the garden (and small ajoining
horse/roo paddock).
(After
my mother died a few years ago my father got sick of their
honking/hooting/squwarking and cleaning up their droppings from the
paving beside the house and shot them (an adult pair and a couple of young
males at the time, I think))
_______________________
Barbara Preston Research
ABN 18 142 854 599
21 Boobialla Street
O'Connor ACT 2602
Phone: 61 2 6247 8919
Fax: 61 2 6247 8779
Mobile: 0439 47
8919
email:
_______________________
Sent: Monday,
February 08, 2010 1:02 AM
Subject:
Spam:******, [canberrabirds] Peafowl update
You may be right but who knows. Surely
there are many foxes and feral cats and raptors and dogs, not to mention still
some tigers which will certainly eat them, where peafowl are native. They are
likely to be adapted to high predation rates, so what we have here will
probably be little problem for them.
-----Original
Message-----
From: Peter Ormay
[
Sent: Sunday, 7 February 2010
12:55 PM
To: John Layton; 'Vikki'; 'Geoffrey Dabb';
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds]
Peafowl update
Peafowl is one species I would not be concerned about
becoming a nuisance feral in Australia.
I don't think they would stand a snowflakes chance in hell surviving outside
the built-up area with so many foxes and feral cats about. I'm surprised
that chicks have survived in suburbia there. I suspect they go from dog free
yard to dog free yard over fences and some people feed them. Do any COG
members live in the area and know if they are fed?
