Will peacocks shatter truce in Makaha Valley?
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward O'ahu Writer
When the peacocks stop squawking, so do the people.
That's the assessment six months after the Makaha Valley Towers board of directors signed a contract for the capture and killing of a number of wild peacocks, then put the plan on hold. The contract was in response to some residents who complained that the birds were a noisy nuisance; the hold came after an outcry by others outraged by such a plan.
Advertiser library photo • April 29, 2003
Today, the peacocks that have inhabited the property for decades still roam free — five dozen to six dozen of them — and there have been no complaints in months.
Peacocks roam free in Makaha Valley, where some people would rather see them dead than hear their loud cries.
But the controversy is expected to begin anew when mating season — and the males' loud cries — resume in the spring.
Ted Pond, president of the Towers board, said he hasn't heard a peep out of either side since the peacock mating season ended in June.
"It's been on hold," he said of the eradication project. But he isn't sure what the board will do when the complaints begin again.
Janet Powell knows what she's going to do.
"We'll be watching," said Powell, an outspoken Towers resident who is among several who vow to maintain a vigil on the peacocks' well-being.
"I've seen some mothers and I've seen some babies, but I haven't seen as many peacocks," she said. "The males have been quiet. So we'll wait and see what happens in the mating season."
The Makaha Valley Towers board has signed a $4,000 contract with the U.S Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services to capture and kill three-quarters of the peacocks.
Mark Ono, district supervisor for Wildlife Services, said the board paid his branch to do the work. But in April, he was told to wait. And that's where it stands, Ono said.
Individuals and organizations in the Islands and even on the Mainland offered to give sanctuary to the birds but they got nowhere — partly because of questions over how to capture the peacocks without harming them and concerns about how the transplanted birds might affect wildlife in the areas where they would be moved.
Peacocks have long been a part of Makaha Valley, particularly since the late Honolulu financier Chinn Ho purchased and introduced a flock in the 1950s. That flock had been raised by Aunt Jennie Wilson, wife of flamboyant Honolulu Mayor Johnny Wilson.
Pond said the board merely intended to thin out the number of peacocks that roam wild between the Towers and neighboring Makaha Valley Plantation. According to Ono, the number of peacocks has increased over the years because people keep feeding the birds.
Pond and Ono agree that once thinned, the peacock population would remain small if people could somehow be convinced not to feed the birds.
Pond said that since tabling the issue, the board still wants to accommodate the wishes of the majority of the Towers' 586 homeowners and is in the process of contacting them.
Finding out how the owners feel could take time, he said, because about 60 percent live elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Pond said the cries and flashy fantail displays by the male birds apparently worked their charm during the mating season.
"We've got quite a few new baby peacocks running around out here," he said.
Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038 or whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.
