by Rhona Mahony. Martin Fackler reported for the New York Times last week (May 7, 2008) that big, aggressive crows, in unprecedented tens of thousands, are shutting down playgrounds, power grids, and even bullet trains across Japan. Since 2001, Tokyo environmental planners have trapped 93,000 crows–lured with fresh meat–then killed them with poison gas. Why the surge in the number of crows? Ornithologists and government officials say that people now throw away much more food than in the past. More wealth, more edible garbage, more food for wild animals, more wild animals. Many Japanese housekeepers now store their curb-side garbage in yellow plastic bags, hoping that crows dislike the color yellow.
Hai! Garbaru canu! Put those plastic bags into rigid, beak-proof containers. Next, instead of putting food scraps into the town landfill, compost them. San Francisco does it; so does all of Nova Scotia. When the Japanese quit catering sidewalk feasts, the crows will go.