Though originally brought to all the major Hawaiian islands by the ancient polynesians, the chickens (or moa, as they're called locally), have pretty much taken over the Garden Isle.
This is the one island that never imported mongooses, a natural enemy. And a massive hurricane in the 1990's released a fresh batch of illegal fighting cocks from their cages, adding a certain assertiveness to the local chicken population. They can definitely take care of themselves.
Though we're gently admonished not to encourage the birds, no one really seems to have much interest in fixing the situation. There's a generally accepted, typically Hawaiian, policy of coexistence here.
Sure, those roosters can be loud in the wee hours of the morning. But they're not aggressive, are strikingly beautiful, and as far as I can tell they definitely earn their keep by eating lots of ants and other pests. And unlike Canada geese back home, they don't leave piles of poo around.
They're part of the landscape here, so we just do what the locals do: live and let live. And wear earplugs to bed.
1 comment:
You know, they really were quite beautiful. But also startling to see (and hear) them randomly, all over the island. I mean, in the grocery store parking lot?? It was definitely "chickens gone wild" on Kauai!
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