Dozens of Peacocks and Peahens Disappear From Remote California Hotel

New York Times

5 days ago

There were always some guests at the Ryde Hotel just as important as the paying customers: the resident peacocks and peahens.
Until, that is, most of them disappeared, quite possibly stolen.
There had been roughly 40 peafowl running around the vicinity of the Ryde in Walnut Grove, Calif., a small town in the Sacramento River Delta. A hardcore group that stayed close to the hotel numbered about 15. All but four have disappeared.
'A guest over the weekend said he had seen two guys putting a peacock in a crate and driving away,' said Rafe Goorwitch, an event coordinator and the unofficial peacock wrangler at the hotel. 'That's when we made the discovery we were down so many.'
Hotel ownership had brought in a mated pair of Indian blue peafowl 15 years ago. Many generations later, their progeny had the run of the place and became a signature of the hotel.
'The public has embraced them,' Mr. Goorwitch said. 'We hang peacock pictures around the hotel.'
Two of the birds were named: the second senior male was Pancho, and 'the senior chief peacock,' as Mr. Goorwitch put it, was Alibaba, called Baba for short.
'He was an atypical peafowl,' Mr. Goorwitch explained. 'Peacocks are known to be aloof; he would come right up to you. He came into the dining room and ballroom, hung out in the rafters. He was not skittish like most peafowl. He just had this attitude. He was just charming.'
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