The Hawaiian islands are home to large populations of feral chooks. While chickens have existed in Hawaii for centuries, their dramatic population boom is quite recent. Hurricanes in 1982 and 1992 destroyed thousands of chicken coops, allowing domesticated birds to escape into the wild, where they interbred with ancient junglefowl (brought by the Polynesians 1000 years ago).
With warm weather, plentiful food, and few predators, chooks have established themselves as a happy feral population. On Maui, the only wild predator is the mongoose, who eats their eggs. This mammal doesn’t live on Kauaʻi, so the chickens are even more widespread on that island.
We spent the last two nights in a tent cabin at Camp Olowalu, where the plentiful roosters woke us at 4am. But at least there were no noisy humans there.
