‘Uncontrollable’ wild chickens cause trouble in small English village

In a small village in Norfolk, England, a hundred chickens returned to the wild disturb the peace of the inhabitants. Some would like to get rid of them, others defend them.

In one article, the Guardian tells, on May 26, how the tranquility of a small village in Norfolk in England, Senttisham, is disturbed by wild chickens. They move in herds and would have become “uncontrollable“, digging up everything in the gardens. To the point that some residents of the town describe their life as hell. In the village, the atmosphere is feverish, because the unruly chickens attract more and more curious people from the surrounding towns, curious which bring them food, which attracts the rats which breed, according to a parish councillor, “like devils“. As a result, some residents are demanding that the village’s wild chickens be completely removed.”deleted“, killed. The question was put to the parish council.

But other residents are defending them. A dog walker tells Guardian that there are more important things happening in the world than a few chickens. And then, as this former Cambridge city dweller who recently moved to Snettisham points out, “before moving here we didn’t know that the chickens got up at 4am, but it gives the place character“.

In reality, these chickens are not that wild. Although no one really knows how they got there, in a small wood near the village, it is very likely that they were originally completely tame, perhaps escaping from a henhouse or a breeding farm. battery. Because real wild chickens exist, such as the Golden Rooster or Gallus gallus, present in the North-East of India, Malaysia or Indonesia, or the Sonnerat rooster, Gallus Sonneratii with its simple and serrated crest. But there are no wild chickens in Europe.

However, it has already happened that domestic chickens have become wild again. In Hawaii, for example, on the island of Kua’ï where the destruction of several sheds released thousands of chickens and roosters during a hurricane in 1992. Over the generations, these Hawaiian chickens have regained the appearance of their ancestors, wearing a darker coat to protect themselves against predators. Why not leave these Snettisham gallinaceans free rather than destroying them, when this world really needs to be rewilded?