Feral Chickens Took Over A Town In New Zealand While Helpless Residents Were In Lockdown
New Zealand might be free from coronavirus, but another dark threat has descended on the country. A gang of feral chickens has invaded the suburb of Titirangi in Auckland, and residents are shaking.
Late last year, around 250 chickens settled in the town. Residents were dismayed, because the chickens kept people awake and damaged gardens and native plants. Chickens are, famously, jerks who have no taste for garden landscaping.
Locals began rehoming the chickens and had almost cleared the town when lockdown began. With their new sense of freedom, the two remaining chickens began to multiply, and now there are another 30 feral birds refusing to leave Titirangi.
God I wish I were a feral chicken in New Zealand right now pic.twitter.com/R2L8vk9elF
— Doodler @ 🍊Animal Crossing🍊 (@p_doodler) June 10, 2020
Locals have begun rehoming the chickens again, this time for good, but people are torn between wanting to keep them and clear out the town.
As Greg Presland, the chair of the Waitākere Ranges community board said: “There’s a very kind-hearted local who feeds them and has kept feeding them so the numbers have started to spike up again. And we’re convinced that there’s been at least two dumping episodes, where someone’s got their chickens and just dumped them in the village.”
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The feral chickens in New Zealand join the growing number of animals who thrived while we were in iso. A lifetime ago, in March 2020, goats overran a town in Wales. Just last month, another 200 goats escaped an enclosure and ran wild through suburban California.
We love to see it.
Travel to New Zealand could be back on again soon, which is pretty damn exciting news especially since that’s the only place where you can get Cadbury’s new Caramilk Hokey Pokey flavour.
(Lead image: Vidar Nordli-Mathisen / Unsplash)
