Latest news with #peafowl
New York Times
23-07-2025
- General
- New York Times
Dozens of Peacocks and Peahens Disappear From Remote California Hotel
There were always some guests at the Ryde Hotel just as important as the paying customers: the resident peacocks and peahens. Until, that is, most of them disappeared, quite possibly stolen. There had been roughly 40 peafowl running around the vicinity of the Ryde in Walnut Grove, Calif., a small town in the Sacramento River Delta. A hardcore group that stayed close to the hotel numbered about 15. All but four have disappeared. 'A guest over the weekend said he had seen two guys putting a peacock in a crate and driving away,' said Rafe Goorwitch, an event coordinator and the unofficial peacock wrangler at the hotel. 'That's when we made the discovery we were down so many.' Hotel ownership had brought in a mated pair of Indian blue peafowl 15 years ago. Many generations later, their progeny had the run of the place and became a signature of the hotel. 'The public has embraced them,' Mr. Goorwitch said. 'We hang peacock pictures around the hotel.' Two of the birds were named: the second senior male was Pancho, and 'the senior chief peacock,' as Mr. Goorwitch put it, was Alibaba, called Baba for short. 'He was an atypical peafowl,' Mr. Goorwitch explained. 'Peacocks are known to be aloof; he would come right up to you. He came into the dining room and ballroom, hung out in the rafters. He was not skittish like most peafowl. He just had this attitude. He was just charming.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Times
20-06-2025
- General
- Times
Roaming peacocks divide village where they run wild in streets
'There have been six on top of my car. I've had up to 18 of them in my garden. They look nice but they're a nuisance.' Les Gladwell, 75, is talking about peacocks. Lots of them. In the North Lincolnshire village of Hibaldstow, the residents share their streets, rooftops and gardens with up to 30 wild peafowl — and opinion is split. To some, the birds are charming neighbours. To others they are noisy vandals with a fondness for shiny cars and shredding flowerbeds. Peafowl, the collective term for peacocks and peahens, are not native to the UK but with their showy feathers have long strutted across country estates and farmyards. They can live to 25 years old. In Hibaldstow they have roamed freely for decades and some locals believe the first pair came from a nearby farm in the 1970s. In recent years numbers have soared. Given the population of 2,400 people, there is an estimated one peafowl for every 80 villagers.
