2. Decide that fish nets are far too inefficient. Dream up a design for a netted trap that lies flat on the ground (food placed in the middle) with handles at either end for peacock wranglers to hold. Trap has netted sides and a netted top that can be drawn closed by lines also held by the two wranglers. Once a bird is lured into the middle of the trap, wranglers can raise the net and pull it closed over the bird. Spend several days seeking out parts and building this trap using PVC piping and garden trellis netting in the junkyard behind the Arboretum green houses, only to find that peafowl are suspicious of the PVC piping and unwilling to step over it to get at the food in the centre. With a great deal of patience, manage to coax one male into the centre of the trap, but just barely miss catching him when the net is drawn closed too slowly.
3. Design two other traps: one snare for snagging the bastards’ feet with a line (complete with a pulley system to ensure extreme speed of snaring) and one remote-controlled caribiner (similarly intended to hook and grab the legs). Decide that the caribiner might present a high risk of leg injury. Discover that although the birds are wary of the snare, it can be more easily camouflaged and thus has potential.
4. After two near-captures with the snare one morning, spot a male displaying to the females who were drawn to the area by our snare bait (peanuts). Have one wrangler sneak up behind this extremely focused male in the throes of his display and grab his legs firmly from behind (note that person must overcome fear of projectile excrement first). Have the second wrangler swoop in to secure the wings.
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So far we’ve managed to catch 14 adult males here using technique no. 4… and much to my relief, we are starting to see the banded males regularly in certain areas around the park. If anyone has any more suggestions for how we might go about catching these birds I’d love to hear them!
From February 28, 2008