Narrabundah peafowl: two birds found dead in a week

The Save the Narrabundah Peafowl Facebook page, run by the Narrabundah Peafowlers, reported that a peacock named Pedro was found dead on Carnegie Crescent on Tuesday.

On Thursday the page reported that a peahen named Penny was found dead on La Perouse Street.

Narrabundah Peafowlers convener Tim DeWan said he was aware of seven peafowl that have been found dead since August 2020.

He said within the last month four peafowl were found dead with three of the birds found on Carnegie Crescent.

Mr DeWan said it was unusual to see peafowl deaths increase especially after the introduction of signs warning drivers to be careful of the colourful birds in July 2020.

"We've never seen so many killed on the roads as we have seen over the last eight months," he said.

Mr DeWan said there was no evidence of motorists deliberately hitting the birds and instead blamed speeding and distracted drivers.

"We've got two significantly long roads, La Perouse Street and Carnegie Crescent, and we've seen people speeding down those roads," he said.

"These birds - they don't run on the road, they walk. When people are speeding and they come across the birds there's not enough time to react. So they just run over them.

"Our peafowl population is being slowly wiped out. Not by deliberate human agency but by sheer indifference."

Mr DeWan said despite the deaths of the birds the Peafowl signs were successful in raising awareness of the existence of the birds in the local community.

"We know that [the signs are] educating people, like the local bus drivers who do the route and have told us 'thank you very much I'll keep an eye out for them'," he said.

However he was concerned some signs were obscured by tree branches as a result of rain over the last few months.

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Mr DeWan said the Narrabundah Peafowlers contacted Fix My Street in October 2020 to alert Access Canberra about the overgrown branches.

"Nothing has happened since October, the branches are still there," Mr DeWan said.

"We're going to get to the stage where we're just going to get our community members together, we'll get some ladders and saws and we'll cut the damn things down ourselves."

An ACT government spokeswoman said a request was received to prune a tree covering a sign on La Perouse St on January 19.

"Crews pruned the tree the following day," she said.

"Following another report of branches obscuring a sign, the ACT government is arranging for another inspection."

She said the government supported the Peafowlers through the installation of four wildlife crossing signs.

Yet Mr DeWan said signs alone won't be enough to save the birds.

"We want to work with the government to cooperatively develop solutions," he said.

"The solution is not one thing, there's a whole range of things that can be looked at and raised with different departments that are responsible for roads and for the environment so we can protect our birds for the future.

"Otherwise at this rate they'll be gone in another year or so."

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