The city of Rancho Palos Verdes will extend its two-year pause in its peafowl trapping program after a recent census count showed a slight overall increase in their population. In six surveyed neighborhoods the peafowl population has increased 24% from a total of 133 in 2023 to 165 this year, according to a census conducted between April 8 and 13, according to code enforcement officer Victoria Powers. But despite the increase from last year, in the last decade — between 2014 and 2024 — the peafowl count has dropped 40%, following the initiation of the Peafowl Management Plan (PMP) in 2014.
“Pausing the trapping program would allow the peafowl population to remain stable,” Powers said at the city’s June 18 City Council meeting. The City Council voted 4-1 in favor of continuing the pause on the trapping program, with Councilmember David Bradley dissenting. Bradley voted no because he was concerned about the nearly 50% increase in the peafowl population in the neighborhoods of Sunnyside Ridge, from 37 in 2023 to 54 in 2024, and Vista Grande, from 37 in 2023 to 55 in 2024.
Bradley said in no way does he want to eliminate peafowls from RPV, but he is “also sympathetic to some of our residents who have had property damage.” Powers said they look at the whole peafowl population when it came to considering pausing the trapping. Maybe a shift in the nesting population has increased the numbers in those particular neighborhoods, she said.
“Individual communities don’t.