If you’ve ever been to Kauai, you know about the chickens. They were a surprise to me, though.
The first chicken I saw was just outside our condo. At the time, I didn’t think much of it. I’d been places where the occasional chicken was allowed to run free.
This was not the occasional chicken, though. They were everywhere on Kauai. In the parking lots …
On the grass with their chicks …
At this rest stop above Opaekaa Falls.
The roosters crowed off and on all day long–a shorter crow that was more cock-a-doo-doo than cock-a-doodle-do.
So, I wondered, what’s the story behind all these wild chickens?
Scientists say most of them are related to red junglefowl from SE Asia that were domesticated about 7000 years ago and brought to Hawaii by Polynesians between 300 and 800 years ago. Then there were the European varieties that were brought in after Captain Cook’s 1778 voyage to Hawaii.
During two big hurricanes, Iwa in 1982 and Iniki in 1992, many of the chickens escaped. Most of them never went back to living in coops. And since Kauai has no wild mammals beside bats, the feral chickens flourished.
Our guide at Allerton Gardens pointed out that the chickens provide a service by eating venomous centipedes. You could eat the chickens, she conceded, but it would probably be better to feed them chicken feed for a couple of weeks first. She smiled and pointed out that it’s easier just to buy your poultry at Costco.
When these mangoes ripen and fall, if you don’t get there first, the chickens will eat them. They won’t fight you for them, though
For the most part the feral chickens were well behaved. There was one exception. I’m talking to you, rooster who jumped on our picnic table at Lydgate State Park.
Nicki, fascinating to read about the feral chickens but good they’re well-behaved (mostly!) It seems they’ve learned to use the zebra crossing in one of your photos!
Chickens are usually so domesticated. I does seen strange to think of them as being feral, especially these beautiful chickens. When I was studying Chinese brush paintings, chickens was one of the subjects I painted.
Hi Nicki – the chickens of Kauai are one of my favorite things about the island. They’ve become a mascot of sorts. I hadn’t thought about the fact that they have no predators but that would certainly explain how they’ve survived for years after the storms. Thanks for sharing!
Human beings could be the predators that put an end to the chickens, but I guess they don’t want to bother. Our guide said she does know of a man who catches chickens for people who order them. He doesn’t have many customers, though.
Not long ago there was a roundabout in Norfolk named the Chicken Roundabout. This large wooded area was populated by chickens originally released from a defunct farm. I believe it has now been cleared
Interesting! I wonder what they did with those chickens.
I remember those chickens. It is weird when you first see them and then keep seeing them. Hahahhaa. A lot of ‘why did the chicken cross the road’ jokes…
I think I remember seeing the occasional chicken running free in the Philippines, but I always assumed it belonged to someone and would come home when it was time to eat–sort of like outdoor cats. What do you see in Thailand?
We go to Kauai every winter for the past 15 years, and that first year we were rather astounded to be woken at 4 every morning by the rooster who seemed to be sitting on our window sill, crowing away. The sun doesn’t even get up in Kauai that time of year until after 6:30, so why he (and many, many others) get up so early, I don’t know. As we lounge on a chair by the ocean, we watch tiny chicks follow their moms to pick at the grass for food. It’s become commonplace for us now. And the roosters seem to be sleeping in until at least 5 a.m. these days. 🙂
Hope you had a fabulous time in the Garden Island.
Yes, Pamela. We did have a fabulous time. We didn’t have any roosters crowing close enough to wake us, but if we didn’t close the curtains all the way, the sun would wake us. It was insistent that we rise and shine–sometimes earlier than we wanted. I thought the roosters were quite beautiful. They say the red jungle fowl are related to pheasants, another attractive bird.
Talk about free range chickens! Glad they eat the venomous centipedes . . .
Sorry that feisty rooster tried to steal your picnic fixings, Nicki. You weren’t having chicken salad, were you?
Nope. We weren’t having chicken salad. In fact, my daughter and I just sat down for a minute to have a quick snack. We should have cleaned off the garbage some humans left on the other end of the table. The rooster was courteous enough not to come to our end of the table, and it only took a word or two to get him to jump down.
Wow, those chickens have expanded their range quite a bit since I went to Kauai.
We saw them in mostly uninhabited areas, and it was the peacocks near the Fern Grotto that you had to battle to keep your sandwich.
The only time I saw a large number of them was at that rest stop. Still, if they have no natural enemies and if most people prefer to buy their chickens at the supermarket, it’s a perfect environment for proliferation.
Feral chickens???? I love that! So funny to see chickens roaming around (though hearing the crowing all day would be a bit annoying). I’m always interested in weird animal stories (like the feral pigs roaming around my brother’s neighborhood in a suburb of Houston).
Oooo! Feral pigs sound dangerous.
The crowing didn’t bother me. I’d rather have that than the sound of cars, actually, it wasn’t that often and not very loud. I just had this impression that roosters crowed to greet the sun. Looking it up, I see that they do have an internal clock, but they all crow all day long. Mainly they crow to claim their turf and to assert their authority over another rooster. You can see I didn’t grow up on a farm, although the lady down the road raised chickens for their eggs and sold them.
I don’t remember the chickens from my visit decades ago. Very cool. Chickens run free in Key West too. At least they did. There was a fight going on last time I visited between those who wanted to get rid of them and those who didn’t. The signs said “Free the chickens.” You have to love people who take these things in stride and don’t think everything has to be perfect (and poop free).
I was looking the other day at a book on digestion called Eat Dirt. I think the title was exaggerated to gain attention, but there has been talk recently about us going overboard on cleanliness and being afraid of germs to the extent that our immune systems never develop sufficiently.
We don’t have any feral chickens in my neighborhood, but occasionally a coyote or a young, inexperienced bear comes around, which is fine unless it catches your cat or small dog.
I wasn’t aware of this, Nicki. Thanks for sharing the history behind the feral chickens. I suppose it’s much like the Canada geese that are ubiquitous in our area. Hopefully the chickens don’t make as big of a mess.
Each year big flocks of Canada geese fly into Skagit Valley where I was born and raised. But it’s a rich agricultural area with lots to eat in the fields after the harvest, so they don’t bother anyone. In fact, they’re well loved for the bright white look of them covering a field or taking flight. Photographers love them as a subject.