Co - existing With Crows | ZENOAQ [Nippon Zenyaku Kogyo Co., Ltd.]

Living with crows can be a big problem, especially in large cities. Tokyo has for a long time, been plagued with the issue of large populations of inner city crows. Needless to say, the main problem here is garbage. A large city generates tons of delicious garbage for crows and other creatures to feast on.

The crows being intelligent birds, know exactly where and how to get their favorite food.
And hence, every morning before the garbage trucks arrive the crows are able to pick out the choice portions from the piles of waste that human beings have thrown out. This would not be such a problem if the crows were able to do it without creating an ungodly mess. But unfortunately the crows go about their business of enjoying the feast by tearing through the contents in the streets.

The garbage collection systems in most Japanese cities do not call for the use of garbage pails or cans. The people take out their garbage to designated collection points in the neighborhood in bags designated by their local government. The garbage collectors then make the rounds of these collection points to pick up the bags. Some places have solved their crow issue by switching the garbage collection hours. Instead of early morning some localities ask that their residents take out their garbage for collection at night. This has prevented the crows from invading the piles but the difficulty of keeping a large workforce on the night shift has prevented many local governments from taking this step.

The Tokyo metropolitan government attempted some years ago to set crow traps in parks to try and cull the population. However these traps were highly unpopular both for practical and humane reasons. Pragmatists pointed out that it would be virtually impossible and highly impractical, if not costly, to do any " effective culling " of the crow population. And animal welfare charities cried out about the cruelty of such measures.

As a result the authorities were forced to consider other ways in which to tackle the issue.
Very recently a new and innovative technique has been developed to help the situation.

Researchers have developed a special film that creates on effective visual barrier so that the crows are unable to see what is inside a bag. This new yellow colored garbage bag has been astoundingly successful in preventing crows from tearing through them to get at the edible wastes. Since crows rely heavily on sight to locate their food the new invention has been very effective.

Some communities have reduced their " damage " by 90 percent by asking their residents to use only these bags to throw out the garbage. This is indeed a step in the right direction, a non-invasive method that enables the humans to live with other members of the animal kingdom without creating unnecessary conflict. Poking around in the garbage has made the city crow into a target of annoyance and sometimes hatred.

But perhaps now, if things work out, the people will cease to regard this fellow creature as a nuisance and learn to accept their existence.

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