I guess I’ll be the wet blanket at the expense of sharing the less-common experience of catching peacocks.
As a teenager my folks owned property in NE Texas. Finding that property plagued with all manner of insect pests, they were convinced that a pair of peacocks would be the perfect solution; they would eat the insects and look good doing it. Turns out peacocks go where they want to go, unless they can’t. And it became my job on several occasions to track them down, capture them, and bring them back.
The task was easier than you’d think (but just as annoying as you would think). Peacocks can fly only short distances. Peacocks are lazy. Peacocks are not intelligent (they do not seem to learn). Whenever our peacocks escaped, it was by flying over our fence. They could be found a short flight from our property (less than 100 yards), usually in a tree. A net big enough to cover a basketball was used, approaching from the front (more of a lateral screen than dropping over the perched bird) invoked their flight response, jumping into the net rather than moving backwards.
The officer could have easily walked around, lazily coraling the animal into a fenced area, pictures seem like they were common to the area. He then called animal control (who probably brought a net). And the bird was content to just stand there until animal control arrived (peacocks are lazy, remember? If you’re not pursuing them they’re usually stationary).
Makes for a much less interesting story, I know. But if you’re ever in the position of needing to catch a peacock, don’t bother with the app—that part is pure poppycock.
On stories about catching large birds: when I was a teenager I had a job at a DIY store, the owner of which also had a pet store, which in turn was known in the area for selling all sorts of exotic animals (this was 20 years when this was still allowed in Belgium).
So he had an outdoor area next to the DIY store where he sold garden statues and stuff, and behind that there was a small paddock he used as 'overflow storage' for animals he didn't have room for elsewhere. Usually there were some ostriches in there, which were quite an attraction and drove part of the business.
Anyway one day he sold an ostrich and they asked (well, told me I guess... although to 15 year old me it was much better than stocking shelves) me to catch it. They weren't large ostriches (I've seen much larger ones in Australia) but it was still taller than I was at the time (1m80 maybe? maybe there were really emus and not ostriches? I'm just going off what I was told here).
So I put on some overalls and the plan was that my colleague would chase it into a corner, I'd jump on it to hold it down, then he'd grab its legs, tie them together, and we'd carry it into a horse trailer they had standing ready. The 'chasing into a corner' part went fine, but then when I got on top of it, it started kicking its legs (obviously) and ripped straight through the legs of my overalls - literally kicking it straight through (mostly without hitting my leg though, fortunately, because those feet are more like talons). So now I was stuck to this ostrich with my overall pants, and to make it worse, it turned out this thing was much stronger than we thought, and it literally took me for a ride. I couldn't jump off because I was stuck to it, and I needed my two hands to hold its neck to keep it from biting at me. So there I was, riding around a wild ostrich with all the customers as audience, my other colleagues laughing their asses off. So I basically had to squeeze my legs to hold on, trying to control its wings, and sort of wrestle it to the ground after which my colleague had the unenviable task to get hold of its feet.
In reality it can't have taken us more than a few minutes, but it felt like half an hour, and I came out quite scratched (but with an applause from our 'audience' so the scratches didn't matter).
Moral of the story, I guess, is that birds can be much stronger than you think, and overall I'd recommend against tackling ostriches/emus head on. So good thinking to the guy in the OP.
"These legs can also be formidable weapons. Ostrich kicks can kill a human or a potential predator like a lion. Each two-toed foot has a long, sharp claw." [0]
No, the next times they drove the horse trailer up to the gate and chased the animals in. The gate was somewhat awkward to access with tbe trailer, hence us catching it the first time, but I guess everybody underestimated how strong these birds are. Also, it's a fun story now, but this could have gone horribly wrong - as per the link below, they actually have 5cm long claws, it would have maimed me if it had caught me.
Also other birds we got afterwards were much more aggresive, I got lucky with the first one. The paddock wrapped around the building, to behind our break room, and we had one bird once that would try to steal food from the breakroom table (in the summer we'd leave the window open). Except there were bars on the outside, so then it got its head stuck one day between those bars. We couldn't get near it to free it because of how fierce it was, and also because it was in pain I guess. So they had to actually call in a vet to sedate it before it could be released. No more open windows after that.
While it seems that a peacock shouldn't be that hard to deal with, being a relatively docile, flight-averse bird of moderate size, it and birds of similar stature can definitely mangle human hands and deliver lacerations that require stitches and may get infected.
>Here, for example, is some photographic footage of a Canada goose successfully attacking a medium-sized teenage boy
I think people wildly overestimate how much damage a bird can do to a human. In the example you've given, it looks like the only reason he was "losing" was because he wasn't willing to attack the bird in retaliation, presumably because nobody wants to be the guy caught on camera beating up wildlife. [cost of getting "attacked" by a bird and being temporarily embarrassed] < [cost of being seen beating up a bird]
If push comes to shove, I'd imagine these birds can be effectively fended off by simply kicking them. The risk of injury should be low because their mouths aren't big enough to bite human legs, and if you're wearing pants you have complete protection from scratches/bites. If you're feeling bold you can even try something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br0bDZmNsW8.
Geese can be nasty. There's a famous story in Livy about how they helped defend the Capitoline fortress in Rome from besieging Gauls who had defeated the Romans on the Allia around 390 BC. [1] It made an impression on the Romans at least, who were not easily impressed but also enjoyed a good yarn.
You are right that a good kick will usually do the trick. However, a good bite to the calf from a goose, even with pants on, can be very painful. As a kid we had some domestic geese and the male was some sort of demon creature with serious anger issues. On multiple occasions it attacked me when I would be feeding the geese. While his bill was not too large, if he got purchase he would then do what I referred to as the death roll. He would twist his head around and put the weight of his body into the roll. I got a couple of good sized welts from that demon. He was a master of the sneak attack.
No, I've had one of these cold melonfarmers run at me with pure malevolence in its eyes, right here in California. I ran the hell away. Reminded me too much of Jurassic Park.
Large birds are terrifying in person. Geese can be really awful, and they're not even particularly huge. If it really came down to a life and death fight I know the bird would lose easily every time, but still.. they're scary.
My old company had a parking lot that was next to a stream that contained geese/geese nests. Every spring the geese would get increasingly aggressive and when you were walking to/from your car, pretty much every time you'd have a run in with an angry goose. Every time, I knew for certain I would win, but I really didn't want to have to deal with it. Nothing sounds like ruining a workday like fist fighting a goose on the way to your desk.
On a very similar note, wild turkey are actually very dangerous. Their legs have spurs on them, which have been known to cause severe or even fatal injury to small animals like dogs. I remember being told when I lived in the country to avoid aggravating them.
For many years I would have a flock of wild turkeys in my yard twice per year for a month period of time or so. They would come down from a distant forested area and do laps around my house, pecking for bugs in the grass. They almost never bothered anything with the house itself, they mostly kept a strict ~2-3 meter distance from it while walking around.
Typically they would have one male/tom each year, with the flock. The largest flock was perhaps 12-15 turkeys (a bizarre sight is to walk outside and randomly see a dozen turkeys sitting in a small tree). The smallest flock had four (that flock had no toms, it was just a female/hen and her three young that season).
The tom turkeys are slightly comical to observe in behavior, although they can get large and look extremely menacing. Their look gives the correct impression: you don't want a piece of this. Toms look like combat sentries, with how they move/strut and act, guarding the flock and moving it as necessary. The toms will physically force the rest of the flock to keep in an area, kind of like a herding dog. They easily go into puffed up super-alert guard mode and will march back and forth near the flock until they calm down.
Overall wild turkeys are extremely skittish. At the slightest noise or rustling, they will usually run for it, heading back to the safety of where they came from. If they see a person, they flee as fast as they can, if they can. They have absolutely no desire to stay and fight. Of all the typical wild animals I've encountered, I've found wild turkeys to be among the most skittish, prone to running at any hint of anything.
So it's six in the morning one day, I'm sleeping, and I am awakened to the sound of a very loud tack tack tack tack'ing somewhere. Like someone hitting a glass window extremely hard. I keep hearing it randomly, so I get up and walk around to investigate. It's a flock of ~8-10 turkeys, with two toms. One of the toms has found a competitor in the reflection of a sliding glass door. He's puffed up, marching back and forth like a soldier turkey and violently attacking the other tom he sees in the glass reflection. This is a very thick pane of glass he's hammering on. Every time he hits it, he seems demoralized, taken aback by the recoil/hit and or his failure to do damage. He walks it off, then ten seconds pass, and he's back in attack mode after seeing his reflection again. To his side is another tom turkey, that keeps trying and failing to get him to stop attacking the glass, trying to force him away from it. I watch for a moment, astounded at how big the tom turkey is (solidly over four feet at the head, or 122cm, when standing properly upright) and curious about the two toms. I try to approach the glass door slowly to get closer, but the instant they hear or see anything abnormal nearby, they immediately run for it. If nothing gives chase, they calm down after running away for a few seconds, and return to doing laps looking for bugs to eat. So the two toms were constantly vying for command of the flock, seemingly. The smarter tom was always trying to boss the dumber (glass pecking) tom around and dictate his movement; the dumber tom would just ignore him, certain that he was in fact in command.
The tom turkeys do look very intimidating, especially puffed up, but they love to run away if given the chance. In more than a decade of observing these flocks, and trying to get closer to watch them, I never once had a male turkey stand its ground and become aggressive toward me. 100% flight record.
About 30 blocks away, years ago there was a peacock farm that shut down.
I fairly far away, but every morning we have the neighborhood peacock walking in front of house, coming to the front door.
Supposedly there was a big capture effort, but this last month I see 2 extra babies.
They are beautiful to look at, but they are a nuisance.
Shitting all over the place (they take big bird shits).
Blocking traffic, struts down middle of 1 lane pathway.(and new neighbours/visitors stopping to take pics
And causing damage to vehicles, just last week a male was tripping out pecking neighbors car denting it.
Always coming to your car or door for food.
I have seen one stop the roof of the house across the street (3 stories).
My mom has a bunch of stuffed bird that have "accurate" sounds when you squeeze them. She has a Cardinal, which was apparently loud enough when played through a screen window to aggitate a real male cardinal which showed up looking for a rival based on the sound.
Ever went to a zoo that has roosters? Play a video on youtube of a rooster cockadoodling for 5 seconds, and then they go on on, and on. It's a lot of fun, and eventually annoying. Never too old for this kind of stuff xD
Makes for a much less interesting story, I know. But if you’re ever in the position of needing to catch a peacock, don’t bother with the app—that part is pure poppycock.