Wanted: White peacock on the loose in Montreal suburb

Graham Batty has about 40 animals on his hobby farm in Saint-Lazare, Que. Everything from horses to llamas, goats and birds.

Two years ago, Batty added two white, fairly rare, male peacocks to the gang, then one of them escaped last week.

“Early the other morning, around 5 o’clock in the morning, I can hear them making their call,” said Batty. “It’s a very distinct loud call, and they don’t usually make that call, because they’re usually in the barn. So, I looked out the window and there was two of them loose on the back lawn.”

Now, how do two peacocks manage to escape a barn?

Batty says Sparkles, his pony, helped unlock their stall with her nose.

He managed to catch one of them, but the other had different plans.

“The bird was at my neighbour’s house for about three or four days,” he said. “I tried on a number of occasions to catch it. I broke one of those long pool scoop things trying to corral it. I haven’t seen it for about two days but I’m still optimistic.”

Since its escape, the peacock has been the talk of the town.

“My husband was going, ‘Oh my god, I’ve never seen one like this and I said I think it’s a peacock,'” said Nadia Forcade. “I looked it up and I said, ‘Oh it’s Graham’s.'”

Experts say the wandering peacock may be difficult to catch since the animal is smart, pretty quick and can fly up into trees.

“The best thing to do if somebody does realize that they have the peacock — it’s on their property or they see it, from a distance — they can possibly attempt to lure it into the backyard with bird seeds and shut it into that backyard,” said Nicola Fleming, a zoologist with Ecomuseum Zoo.

Batty hopes the town’s newfound celebrity will find his way home soon.

He says his mate misses him, as does Sparkles, who seems to feel badly about the whole ordeal.