An Italian seaside village has been taken over by dozens of wild peacocks who are looking for love. Residents of Punta Marina, on Italy's Adriatic coast, are being terrorised by the birds who are causing travel chaos, damaging cars and keeping locals up at night with their spring mating calls.
And the number of peacocks in the area has skyrocketed to an estimated 120 in recent years. Their booming population has divided locals with one side believing they should be left alone and others who believe they should be moved elsewhere.
Residents Speak Out
One such resident is 81-year-old Marco Manzoli, a retired bus driver, who described the birds as essentially delinquents who poo a lot. Mr Manzoli said: 'The population has boomed over 30 years and it's too big now: they disrupt sleep, disrupt traffic and dirty the ground with ice-cream-like excrement, which we then step in. The peacocks climb onto the cars... and scratch them.' Mr Manzoli added that he feared tourists, who flock to Punta Marina in summer to enjoy its Blue Flag beach, won't come on holiday anymore unless 'they have a garage to park their car in'.
Peacocks were once-revered creatures which appear throughout the nearby city of Ravenna's prized mosaics as a symbol of immortality. Pastry chef Claudio Ianiero, 64, said that the birds have long lived in the pine forest behind the village, but have begun seeking safety from predators by nesting in the gardens of abandoned houses. 'Out there they have many natural enemies, such as wolves and foxes. Here however, they have none, and they are proliferating in a way that is difficult to control,' he said.
Mr Ianiero denied frenzied reports of an invasion, a sanitary emergency, or locals being forced to move away. The chef, who boasts peacock biscuits among his delicacies, says locals have lived in harmony with them for years. The crested birds, in their myriad blues, are 'something magic' for Punta Marina, he added.
But Mara Capasso, a 57-year-old supermarket cashier, said she had neighbours woken nightly by mating calls. The peacock problem had 'split the town into two factions', she said. The birds should be 'taken to pine forests, woods, places where they can be in their natural habitat, because they should never live on concrete. They need to be in their natural environment,' she said.
Council Efforts
Ravenna city council has toyed with various strategies to manage the population over the years. But an attempt to relocate them in 2022 fell through largely due to opposition from animal rights groups. It may have more success now, for 'we are getting adoption offers from all over Italy,' Mr Ianiero said.
Though the council launched a campaign in 2024 to instruct locals and holidaymakers on how to live alongside the birds - such as not feeding them - local Emanuele Crescentini said more must be done. Kitted out in a fluorescent orange jacket, the 50-year-old said he had appointed himself a peacock 'ranger', walking the streets to protect the birds from irate locals. 'There's plenty of space in Punta Marina, they could spread out everywhere and cause no trouble at all,' he said. 'We could set an example of intelligent and mature coexistence. It can be done.'
