Recently I was picnicking with friends and we had a visitor. He was VERY close and I was not entirely comfortable. My friends did not understand my discomfort, but I am thinking they were not entirely aware of how aggressive peacocks can be. He was giving me the stink eye and I just wanted to be prepared for the moment when he tried to grab my sandwich out of my hand. But he did not, although he did stand there pretty much the entire time we were eating.
We were talking to one of the staff who said that there is about 25 or 30 peacocks. She said that they had been brought over from Spain and they used to live and hang around the area, but they didn’t hang around as much anymore since the neighbor up the road started feeding them.
Of course being around them made me curious about them because there seems to be that peacocks are just hanging around places more often than there used to be. At least, I see them more than I used to. We used to have peacocks in our science area when I was in 7th and 8th grade. They used to scream – a lot.
While looking up some information on them, I did confirm that they can be aggressive and they are territorial. The internet also confirmed that they have been seen chasing people to get their food. So, that is why I kept my eye on this one while he eyed my sandwich.
The internet also said that peacocks do or have attacked people, but it is not a common thing. Most of the information mentioned “mating season” when reporting on incidences. Sounds as if they get aggressive during mating season, but that seems typical of most species.
It is interesting – to me – to learn that peacocks are the males while the female are peahens and they both are peafowl. The peacocks we saw did not have many tail feathers so we were not treated to any grand displays. Come to find out the males shed their tail feathers. They shed at the end of each mating season. One website stated it can be fast – happening in a week or it could take months. They do grow back in time for the next year’s mating season. That gives me hope that the feathers that are sold are actually molted feathers and are not plucked from the birds.
We had a pleasant picnic even though this guy totally wanted my sandwich.
It is OBVIOUS he wanted my sandwich!
Have you been seeing peacocks around more often than you used to?
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