A pair of peacocks are on the loose in Batemans Bay. Photo: James Wainscoat.
Two peacocks, former residents of Birdland Animal Park, have been on the loose in Batemans Bay for almost a year. They are attracting considerable attention on social media.
Birdland Animal Park was one of Batemans Bay’s oldest tourist attractions. It closed its gates for the last time in October 2024 after its owner of some 30 years, David Burnett, was hospitalised.
For 50 years, the park gave many people their first introduction to Australian wildlife. It was also a safe haven for animals injured or donated by owners who couldn’t care for them properly.
Its residents included many free roaming peacocks.
When the park was closing, social media was flooded with questions from visitors about the fate of their favourite animals. All had been rehomed.
However, when the owners were taking the animals away, they couldn’t catch two of the peacocks. Social media has also mentioned guinea fowl may be at large.
It is unclear who is responsible for the birds.
In a statement a spokesperson for Eurobodalla Shire Council said generally, councils were not responsible for managing pest or feral birds.
“This is normally done by private landholders where appropriate, or through eradication programs run by Local Land Services for some public land,” the spokesperson said. “However, council is aware of these birds and looking at options for their management.”
The formerly privately-owned park was on eight acres of Crown land.
Crown Lands said the land is now with Batemans Bay Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC).
It will be quite some time before the LALC can do anything with the land. It has to go through the native title process to knock down some buildings contaminated with asbestos. The property has been vandalised since the park closed. At one point there were squatters.
In the meantime Batemans Bay LALC is maintaining the property. Once it has permission to go ahead with its plans for the property, it will need to apply for substantial funding.
For 50 years, Birdland Animal Park gave many people their first introduction to Australian wildlife. Photo: Birdland Animal Park.
Zookeeper Chad Staples of Mogo Wildlife Park allayed any concerns people might have about the peacocks’ welfare.
“Birds in general are very intelligent. They are synonymous with intelligence,” Mr Staples said. “They are very good at exploiting any environment.”
He said peacocks could adapt and their digestive system could handle a broad range of food, including whatever they could scratch up on the ground and insects. So, as far as their wellbeing went, they were fine apart from the obvious dangers for any animal outside its usual environment such as road traffic.
Mr Staples said people should not feed the peacocks because they could become reliant.
He said peafowl were not dangerous, although males could be aggressive during breeding season, typically with other birds such as turkeys.
He did not recommend approaching the peacocks.
“Realistically you should not try to catch an animal you don’t know,” Mr Staples said. “Invariably you will hurt yourself and the animal.”
