The Mystery Of Kauai’s Famous Chickens

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At Shaka Web Design Services, we aren’t simply a company that is passionate about helping business owners and entrepreneurs discover how to supercharge their online marketing presence – we are also obsessed with everything that the incredible state of Hawaii has to offer!

When clients learn that our headquarters are on the island of Kauai in the beautiful state of Hawaii, one of the questions we are often asked is What’s the deal with those chickens?

If you haven’t visited Hawaii – particularly the gorgeous island of Kauai (aka The Garden Isle) – you may not know about one of the mysterious island treasures that excites natives and tourists alike: the Famous Kauai Feral Chicken. With thousands of these feral fauna scurrying around the island, there is quite a bit of mystery surrounding how the chickens arrived in Hawaii, and why they have been able to become one of the most populous animals on the islands!

In the spirit of curiosity and discovery, let’s take a step away from our usual tech blog and dig a bit into the story behind the famous Kauai Feral Chicken!

Getting To Know Kauai’s Famous Resident

While the Hawaiian islands are known for their beauty, the relatively isolated islands were quite devoid of any animals for centuries. Local legend holds that the earliest settlements, possibly Polynesian, brought to the island foreign animals such as birds, mid-size farm animals such as the Kauai wild cattle, and more species.

The Kauai wild chicken’s origin story is wrapped in island legend. These feral poultry, known for their colorful plumage and their convenient hunger for the local poisonous centipedes, have been growing in number quickly across the island. This has led some to begin to migrate (mysteriously) across the water to other islands such as Oahu. Not native to the Hawaiian islands, the wild chicken can create quite a headache for the local ecosystem!

So how did the wild chicken even make its way to Hawaii in the first place? According to scientists who have studied the history of chickens, most types of chicken are believed to be descendants of the red junglefowl, which draws its history back to Southeast Asia. This may contribute to the concept that original Polynesians brought the fowl with them across the sea, and allowed them to breed on the island. It is also surmised that when the pioneer Captain Cook landed on Hawaii in 1778, the red junglefowl bred with the domestic chickens brought by Cook’s crew – and thus the wild chicken of Hawaii was born!

Another major point of history for these wild chickens was the powerful Hurricane Iniki, a storm that devastated Kauai on September 11, 1992. During this historic hurricane, it is believed that many domestic chicken coops were destroyed, releasing the domestic chickens into the wild where they encountered the wild fowl. The legend of Hurricane Iniki has led to wild (though impossible) rumors that the Kauai wild chicken actually flew across the ocean on the winds of the hurricane! While this rumor is truly mind-boggling, it does show just how mysterious and shocking it is to see hundreds of wild chickens walking the beaches of Kauai!

Loving – And Dealing With – The Kauai Chicken

While the wild chickens of Kauai can be quite a sight to behold, steps have been taken to try and curb the growth of these fowl while still helping protect them. Even those who would try to capture one to eat will be sad to discover that this particular type of fowl is relatively inedible. Even the local businesses have given up hope of trying to roast Kauai Chicken meat!

In the meantime, if you are planning a trip to Kauai, make sure you keep an eye out for these incredible specifics of the island’s mysterious fauna. Just make sure you bring a set of earplugs, because you never know when a Kauai Wild Chicken will become your unexpected alarm clock!