Ray -
A similar flock has been free-ranging the Albuquerque valley area near
Broadway and Montano.
I don't think I ever make it down that way. I'm always heartened to see
a little "wild" in the city.
Some friends of mine whose property is roamed got married some years
ago and they had a wedding dinner featuring roast peacock. It's a
little greasy, like duck, and tastes somewhere between duck and goose.
And free-range, if not (almost surely) organic to boot! I've always
wondered what the rules about "harvesting" feral animals might be...
especially in a city. Is that NM Fish&Game rules or Bernalillo country
Animal Control purview? My Appalachy ancestors loved their squirrel and
possum (not feral but verminish). I assume that the last generation's
homeless (aka Hobos) fed off of anything they could catch (pigeons,
rats, ???) with gusto while today I suspect most of us would starve to
death while pigeons shat upon us and rats tugged at our leather
shoes/belts while we slept.
When I first moved into Corrales, there were several flocks of guinea
hens that migrated north-south twice-daily across the generally
east-west properties. Those were the remnant of a flock released when
a local farmer failed to make any money raising them.
We had 3 (remaining of 4 after an Owl snagged one) Geese and 8 chickens
when we gave them up to move to Berkeley in 2005. I was amazed that
both, raised from chicks/goslings were happy to remain within our
property boundaries (how do they recognize a barbed wire fence as a
boundary?) as a matter of course. Maybe they recognized the territory
of our dog (who also for the most part respected the same boundaries) as
being (mostly) coyote free? I suppose that Pea and Guinea fowl are
probably much closer to "wild" and of course water birds are going to
stay close/return to their water.
I would expect that there has not been sufficient time for real
genetic variations to develop in any of these isolated communities.
If I'm right about the timeline of the Nambe Peacocks, it seems like an
isolated and relatively small community of order 100 generations with no
(or few?) introductions and no (or little) human intervention (except as
patrons)?
- Steve
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