(JP)Tokyo unleashes deadly force in citywide crow crackdown

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http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/12/12202001/ap_45912.asp

 

Tokyo unleashes deadly force in citywide crow

crackdown

 

Thursday, December 20, 2001

By Hans Greimel, Associated Press

 

TOKYO — City hall unleashed its most deadly measure to

date this week in the battle to rein in Tokyo's ornery

crows — an extermination plan aimed at wiping out

7,000 of the big black birds by March.

Mischievous and aggressive, Tokyo crows brandish

blade-sharp beaks and are as adept at picking off

prairie dogs at the city zoo as they are at ripping

open garbage bags and littering the capital's streets

with rotten food.

 

Swamped by complaints, Tokyo launched a citywide plan

this week to set up 100 fenced-in traps, some with

room for 70 crows. The idea: Lure the birds, then gas

them with carbon dioxide.

 

" I've heard of these birds attacking baby kittens, "

said task force leader Akira Ishii, as workmen

hammered together the first trap in popular Yoyogi

Park, where pine thickets reverberate with grating

caws and the sky swirls with black silhouettes.

" Something had to be done. "

 

Rats are a worry in most big cities. But in Tokyo,

crows rank beside air pollution as a top metropolitan

headache for Gov. Shintaro Ishihara. The city is

spending 30 million yen (US$236,000) for the traps

alone. The crow population has more than tripled to

about 21,000 since 1985, despite repeated efforts to

deprive them of their main food, garbage. Ishii said a

population of 7,000 is the natural level.

 

Aside from plundering curbside trash like voracious

dogs, Tokyo crows — which have a wingspan of up to 1

meter (3.3 feet) — are known to dive-bomb people who

come too close to their fortress-like nests during

breeding season.

 

" Beware of Crows " signs hang in city parks, where the

airborne marauders are sometimes feared more than

purse snatchers. " I hate them, " said banker Miyo

Sakai, a one-time fly-by victim. " It was a really

scary moment. "

 

Attacks at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo helped rally support for

the sweeping crow crackdown. Watching crows pluck up

and devour baby prairie dogs or peck holes in the

backs of hapless deer was one of the last straws.

" It's a big problem for those poor animals, " Ishii

said, calling the trap plan a " good idea. "

 

The Tokyo government received 2,891 crow control

complaints between May and August. Experts removed 464

nests, destroyed 105 eggs, and killed 1,064 chicks.

 

Aside from trapping, the city has also moved garbage

collection times closer to daybreak so trash isn't

sitting out as long during crows' prime feeding hours.

 

 

Bird lovers applaud that move, but any talk of

extermination ruffles their feathers. " People

misunderstand crows, " said Meiko Kurosawa, of the Wild

Bird Society of Japan. " They are part of the wildlife

in Tokyo, and we have to live in coexistence. "

 

Corves macrorhynchos, the species commonly found in

Tokyo, is also known as the jungle crow. It has

largely displaced the smaller Corves corone, or

carrion crow, around Tokyo.

 

Tokyo isn't the only Asian city battling the birds.

There are about 100,000 in Singapore, about 10 times

the natural density. The Singapore Gun Club says it

has helped slash the population to that level by

shooting nearly 70,000 crows over the past two years.

 

Copyright 2001, Associated Press

 

 

 

 

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