A red and white rooster with iridescent black tailfeathers strutted down the center of a street on the North Shore of Kauai. Every few feet, he inflated his chest, threw back his head, and emitted an earsplitting crow. He was unquestionably the king of this little residential road, and he wanted everyone to know it.
Above him, clouds poufy as silk sails trimmed with the gold of dawn floated along at approximately five knots. The wind was just enough to rustle the fronds of the coconut palms lining the route, enhancing the songs of turtledoves and cardinals, the chatter of mynahs commenting on the start of a new day, and of course the vigorous bellowing of the rooster.
The chickens on Kauai have become a meme; everywhere you look, these descendants of the “canoe crops” brought to the islands by the Polynesians roam and scratch and—yes indeed—crow.
Why aren’t chickens that kind of presence on the other islands?
In a nutshell, there are no mongooses o…
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