Kensington Gardens is one of numerous places throughout the British capital where ring-necked parakeets are thriving—an estimated 30,000 of them today
It’s a mild day in late October, and I’m standing near the Peter Pan statue, J.M. Barrie’s monument to childhood, in Kensington Gardens, in the heart of central London. Next to a fenced-off area, about 20 people are feeding a noisy group of parakeets. The exotic, emerald-green birds with lipstick-red beaks are used to the attention. They swoop down, unafraid, onto the outstretched hands of delighted children and grown-ups, who hold out apple cores or nuts for them to feed on.
“My suspicion is that there were a whole lot of releases over a period of years of pet birds or birds in aviaries,” says Paul Walton, head of habitat and species for the Scottish branch of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds . They were either freed deliberately or escaped. “Often what happens is that you get a really small number of breeding populations that could be there for a number of years without being detected.
But, he adds, “A lot of the conversations very quickly went into areas that had nothing to do with parakeets at all, such as immigration. People projected their fears onto parakeets. We did our research leading up to the Brexit referendum, and there was definitely anti-immigrant rhetoric creeping into these conversations about birds.” On the other side, some people saw them “as paragons of coexistence and diversity. So they were projecting their ideas about multiculturalism onto the parakeets.
In London, rumors occasionally circulate that many of the city’s parakeets will be reduced by hired guns. But would animal-loving Brits stand by as government marksmen blow thousands of birds out of the trees? Londoners increasingly seem to share that reaction. Three quintessential British institutions—a women’s rugby club in Esher; a pub, The Anglers, in Walton-On-Thames; and Bexley Brewery, in southeast London—chose parakeets as their emblem.
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city surprisingly wellCaracals in Cape Town have adapted to live hidden in plain sight along the urban edge, but these opportunistic predators “still have a lot of challenges ahead of them”
Read more »
Wild moments from the 2022 WEBB Party at San Antonio's Aztec TheatreWEBB Party returned to San Antonio on Friday with wild live performances and entertainment that raises money for the San Antonio AIDS Foundation. Here's a look at all the over-the-top fun at this year's zodiac-themed event.
Read more »
This Woman On TikTok Can Sing Exactly Like Famous Celebs And It's Wild To HearGoosebumps! 🎶
Read more »
Hawk Impaled By Stick Released Back Into Wild in DallasA red-tailed hawk got a chance to spread its wings on Saturday and fly to freedom. In February, Bryce Butler happened to be walking through Valley View Park while taking a work break when he found the injured bird. The hawk had a stick impaled straight through its body. It’s unknown how the bird was injured. “Anytime I see any…
Read more »