Meet Percival the peacock: Defender of chickens, protector of the farm
Any predators looking to get a taste of some chicken are going to have to taste the rainbow instead. Meet Percival, a three year old peacock and protector of chickens.
When faced with the dilemma of protecting your fowl, most farmers default to a trained dog or even a shot-gun. Not Queensland farmer Mark Burgunder. He enlisted the help of a peacock named Percival (or Percy to his mates) to watch over his prized poultry.
Percy not only protects the chickens, he's pretty fond of their company too, though the egg-laying birds aren't that impressed by his colourful plume. "It didn't take long for the chickens to realise that he was no danger at all. Now they mostly ignore him, in spite of Percival showing them his wheel of feathers quite a lot," Burgunder told Mashable.
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Originally acquired keep the snake population down on the Sunshine Coast farm, Burgunder noticed a reduction in bird of prey-related chicken deaths since Percy's arrival.
Speaking with ABC Rural Burgunder said it was only when he realised that there hadn't been an attack from a carnivorous goshawk bird for a while, that he put the pieces together. "We think it's just because of his size, the goshawks see a big bird like a peacock in the pen and they say 'Nope, not going in there,'" Burgunder said.
Though Percy's presence deters the goshawks, the peacock is apparently finicky when it comes to other types of pests he's willing to take on. "He doesn't do the foxes or the feral cats, because we had a feral cat attack recently," Burgunder told the ABC, adding that the colourful bird likes to spend most of his time with his chicken friends.
As for the bond between peacock and chicken, Burgunder told Mashable "Some of the chickens have become a bit cheeky around him, especially when he's showing off. Some chickens like to sneak behind his 'love radar' to peck at his long large feathers."
Percy puffs out an impressive plume when he's on chicken guard duties. He's certainly one bird whose feathers you wouldn't want to ruffle.
