A touch of the exotic: Peacocks strut their stuff in Memorial Park Cemetery

For 25 cents and a drive up behind the memorial tower in Cape County Memorial Park Cemetery on Highway 61, anyone can feed a peacock -- or a peahen.

A muster, not a flock, of the birds lives in an enclosure on the hilltop behind the tower, and it's tended by the groundskeeping staff.

Matt Daniels is one of those staff members, and said there are a couple of people who share the responsibility.

Daniels said it's his understanding that the peacocks have lived at the cemetery for decades, and used to be allowed to run free back when Highway 61 was two lanes wide.

But eventually, a pen was built, he said.

A peacock is seen in the enclosure at Cape County Memorial Park Cemetery Oct. 16 in Cape Girardeau.KASSI JACKSON

"They're kind of a landmark, but they take care of themselves for the most part," Daniels said.

Seven peacocks and four hens roam the run, which is built out from a windowed "house" and includes gravel and a perch.

Daniels said he believes the cemetery's founder, Hugo Felix, got the idea to have peacocks on the grounds from a couple of cemeteries in California.

The Cape Girardeau County cemetery itself was founded in 1932, Daniels said.

Ford & Sons Funeral Home bought the cemetery in the 1980s and still own it, he added.

Peacocks and peahens are seen in the enclosure at Cape County Memorial Park Cemetery Dec. 3, in Cape Girardeau.KASSI JACKSON

The birds are beautiful, but can get territorial, Daniels said, noting that one particularly aggressive male years ago had to have his beak trimmed down because he could injure the other birds.

Peacocks are related to pheasants, and blue peacocks, the type that live in the local cemetery, are native to India and Sri Lanka.

Their distinctive tail feathers with "eyes" are prominent in peacocks' mating displays, and a peacock's call is distinctive -- piercing, loud, high-pitched.

Daniels said over the years, all kinds of birds have joined the cemetery's peacock population, including turkeys, pheasants, quail, even a rooster, "but now we're pretty much down to the peafowl."

And, he noted, over the last couple of years, the population has started to hatch out a few of its own chicks.

A peahen is seen in the enclosure at Cape County Memorial Park Cemetery Dec. 3 in Cape Girardeau.KASSI JACKSON

The birds' feathers aren't at their prettiest right now, Daniels said. "They're about like leaves," he said. "They start to fall out in August, September, and regrow starting in about February or March."

There's a jar in the cemetery's office where extra feathers are kept, he said, and sometimes people request them.

Meanwhile, the peacocks and peahens roam their enclosure, pecking at cracked corn and screeching at passers-by.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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