This isn’t a zoo

Mさんがピーコック(スーパーじゃなくて鳥のほう)についてエッセイを書いてくれました。
ピーコックの写真は撮影できなかったそうなのです。(かわりに隅田川のアオサギを使いました。)


The last time I was back home, I was taking a walk and a big bird, almost a meter long, crossed in front of me. I wasn’t at the zoo, I was just strolling along a paved mountain path. When I lived in my hometown more than 20 years ago there were no big birds like this. I remembered an article in the local newspaper’s online edition and realized that the bird was a peacock.

These peacocks were not originally inhabit to my hometown. They were had but they escaped and became wild.

My hometown is a small island with a subtropical climate. The warm climate and lack of foreign enemies seemed to be suitable for the peacocks, and they have bred rapidly. Would you be happy to see a beautiful peacock on one of your daily walks? Unfortunately the situation is not that simple.

Peacocks are omnivorous and eat anything. In addition to damaging crops, they eat a variety of living things, destroying the ecosystem of the island. It is said that the decline of rare lizards, which are designated as natural treasures, is due to peacocks eating them. Even the habu (a kind of poisonous snake), which stands at the top of the island’s ecosystem, is eaten by the peacocks. For this reason, the peacock has been targeted for extermination.

It was people who originally brought peacocks to the island, and from the peacocks’ point of view, they just followed the natural providence and increased their numbers. The peacocks are not to blame, but they are being exterminated because people have been negligent in their management.

On the other hand, in order not to waste the lives of the peacocks, a local restaurant has even invented a dish using peacock meat and adopted it into their menu. Even the peacocks, who eat everything, have become a new food source for humans.