- Surprisingly, some locals don’t want to get rid of the rampaging birds.
Punta Marina is something you might consider a beach paradise. The Italian seaside town has it all: miles of sand for sunbathing, warm and shallow waters for swimming, and comfy resorts for sleeping.
It’s also home to colorful peacocks. Hordes upon hordes of peacocks.
What began as one person’s exotic pets has become a townwide problem. Dozens of peacocks now roam Punta Marina, making locals’ lives unbearable.
The birds are rude, hungry, and obnoxiously loud. And, as always with congregating birds, they leave an awful mess behind them.
To make matters worse, it seems there’s no end to their numbers. Every year, there are more peacocks in Punta Marina, and their numbers have finally reached a breaking point.
Local authorities are now brewing a plan to cull the birds’ numbers in one way or another. However, much to their surprise, some locals have protested against any action aiming to get rid of the peacocks.
Wonder which will happen first: the birds completely overrun Punta Marina or a civil war breaks out between the pro- and anti-peacock factions.
‘They Don’t Let Us Sleep’
Welcome to fair Punta Marina, where we lay our scene. This small town on northern Italy’s Adriatic coast is located just outside Ravenna, some 40 miles from Rimini and 50 miles from Bologna.
It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from an Italian beach town. There are classy hotels, little seaside eateries, and — of course — miles upon miles of beautiful Mediterranean sand.
Punta Marina has also become famous for its peacocks. Initially, that might sound good. A resort town and fancy, exotic birds just go together.
The thing about peacocks, though, is that they’re only nice if you can look at them for a while and then get away from them. Punta Marina’s residents don’t have that luxury.
Over the last 15 or so years, an ever-growing horde of peacocks has slowly been taking over the town. The invading birds have turned life in Punta Marina into a flamboyant take on Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
The peacocks are ravenous and constantly on the lookout for something to eat. They’ve stripped locals’ gardens clean of vegetation. After they’re gone, nothing remains but a barren yard full of peafowl poop.
What’s more, the birds are half tame. As such, they’re not afraid of people. They roam wherever they please, carelessly walking in front of cars and disturbing traffic.
Finally, there’s the noise. If you’ve heard a peacock screech at a zoo, you probably thought it was a loud but funny noise.
Now imagine that from 200 throats. Around the clock; all over the place.
“They don’t let us sleep,” one tired resident told BalkanWeb.
Neglectful Pet Owner
With their native habitats in Southeast Asia and Central Africa, peacocks aren’t native to Italy. So where did the horde plaguing Punta Marina come from?
The same place these kinds of invasions always come from: a neglectful pet owner.
Years ago, an area resident purchased a few peacocks. Perhaps they thought tourists would pay to see them, or maybe they could sell their feathers and meat.
Whatever the original owner wanted, they didn’t get it. Eventually, they decided they no longer wanted the birds.
Around 2010, they released the peacocks into the wild.
Letting foreign animal species run rampant is never a good idea, and the peacocks soon demonstrated why. With no natural threats or predators, they found Punta Marina a veritable paradise with plenty of food.
So, they started breeding.
The original handful of peacocks has turned into an endless swarm. Locals aren’t sure of the precise numbers, but there are anywhere from 100 to 200 peacocks in the area.
A Town Divided
Now, the number of peacocks has become unsustainable. They’re wrecking the place, and locals are constantly filing complaints with the authorities about the damage they cause.
Responding to the residents’ pleas for help, the town authorities have started exploring ways to resolve the issue. Their primary planned course of action is catching and relocating the birds somewhere where they can do no harm.
Much to everyone’s surprise, however, these plans have resulted in another wave of protest. Animal rights organizations and even some Punta Marina residents are saying the authorities should let the peacocks be.
They’re arguing that by now the peacocks have become a symbol of local identity. As such, Punta Marina should learn to coexist with them peacefully.
Understandably, this sudden duality of opinion over the peacocks has resulted in some tension in town. On one side, you have locals who are more than sick of the birds; on the other, the animal lovers who don’t want the birds to go.
Two households, both alike in dignity. We can only hope the row over the peacocks doesn’t tear Punta Marina apart.
Punta Marina isn’t the only place in Italy struggling with rampaging animals. Read our story about Alicudi, a Mediterranean island overrun with goats.