For those that may not know Kauai is covered in feral chickens. The standing theory is that hurricanes Iniki and Iwa in 1992 and 1982 repectively destroyed a large number of domestic chicken coops loosing these bird's ancestors into the wild where they then mated with wild fowl brought to the islands 1000s of years prior by Polynesians.
The result today is a poulation of wild chickens running around in a volume rivaling the pigeon populations in New York or London.
Kauai is intersting from a fauna perspective. Not only are there little to no snakes, but there are no deadly venemous species at all or any apex predators. So essentially the chickens exist at the top of the food chain with their only predators being cars. I guess they aren't even hunted very often becasue their meat is very gristly and gamey.
So the population continues to grow along with a growing concenr for the future impact to the island.
On one hand they do a really good job of eating bugs including the one poisonous - but not deadly - bug on the island the giant centipede.
On the other hand if you are a light sleeper the roosters will wake you up at 3am. And then 4am. And then 5am and just to be sure again at 6am and 7 before they get on with their day. Apparently they can be pretty impactful to gardens and commercial agricusture so you will see most gardens caged in - including the roof since these wild buggers can fly!
So this is my hommage blog to the Wild Chickens of Kauai.
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