{"id":101677,"date":"2020-04-28T16:11:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T23:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101677"},"modified":"2020-04-28T16:11:43","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T23:11:43","slug":"crows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/28\/crows\/","title":{"rendered":"Crows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Sri Lanka is\nfull of crows. A writer\u2019s friend joked him that in Colombo there are more crows\nthan people!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crows live in groups; they\nwork together. They thrive on trash; basically any kind of food\nwaste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some think\ncrows are good as they clean up the environment. This is a misconception. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest\nproblem with crows is that they are large scale waste carriers. A person who\nmaintains an immaculate lawn would find spoilt food, rotten meat, dead rats etc\ndropped on it – by crows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crows form\nlarge roosts mostly on tall trees. Crows are known as \u2018pooping machines\u2019. It is\nsomewhat fearsome to walk under Colombo\u2019s big trees, lamp posts etc as it is\nquite possible that a crow would poop. There is hardly anyone who has not been treated\nwith this offensive discharge. Whether they do it intentionally or not, only\nexperts could say. Crows shoot their droppings upon vehicles uttering\ndiscomfort to vehicle owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crows are omnivorous\nand eating plant material lead them to discharge greater fecal output. This is\nwhy one notices so much of crow droppings on Colombo\u2019s sidewalks\/pedestrian\nways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early\nmornings the Galle Face Green is full of crows. It is difficult to stroll as\ntheir numbers are too many. The crows fly in to eat the leftover greasy\/oily\njunk food thrown in the bins and scattered across the Green. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One could\nsee crows gradually taking over the domain in Vihara Mahadevi Park which is\nhome to so many other bird species. When they encroach as a group, other good\nbird varieties gradually become displaced. Crows are strong, they compete well and\nchase away the tender bird species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Problem\nat Vihara Maha Devi Park is that there are street\/junk food outlets there, in\nthe Children\u2019s section. Like in Galle Face Green, crows are attracted therein to\nthe waste.  As the Park is a permanent\nsource of food, they are now permanent there. They live on trees closer to the\nfood. At Vihara Maha Devi Park around the live food area, Rats (Mice) too have\npopped up in large numbers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is\ndifficult to walk around the Beira Lake due to too many crows such as on Walkways\naround the Seemamalakaya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crows have encroached\ninside the Fort Railway Station.  The\nStation is well known for its Pigeons who live in nests formed under the\nroof.  It seems their day of exclusive\noccupation is numbered as crows too have got in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large, highly concentrated\npopulations of crows can easily spread various diseases to humans directly\/indirectly\n(eg. TB, Encephalitis, Meningitis). Being waste carriers,\ncrows may be able to indirectly spread the Corono Virus (eg. carrying used masks,\nswabs etc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As their numbers are ever increasing, we need a crow\ncontrol program, especially in Colombo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\ncountries do this (Crow Control) by way of unmerciful killings. They use many\ntactics such as shooting, poisoning and gassing. We cannot do these in Sri\nLanka. We are a Buddhist country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must adopt humane methods. In home environments, crows\ncan be controlled by freighting; eg, lighting firecrackers, displaying crow\nfeather, hanging something shiny across the yard (like aluminum plates), using\nbird (crow) traps etc.  But, as the\nproblem is very big, we need a large scale, long term solution\/operation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the best methods is genetic\nengineering. Australia\nand New Zealand are world leaders in using gene drives to control species\npopulations. If Australian CSIRO is contacted (through the High Commission\nhere), I am sure they would assist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nhave well controlled the stray dog population in Colombo, through intent sterilization.\nWe should be thankful to the hardworking staff of the Colombo Municipal Council\nfor this. They roam Colombo streets on mornings in search of stray dogs, then subject\nthem to humane sterilization. It is a very difficult job, but they do it very well.\nThanks to them, Colombo\u2019s stray dog numbers are controlled. In Puerto Rico they\nuse a pill, Neutersol, as a method of non surgical stray dog sterilization. In\nregards to crows, we need to adopt similar methods. We cannot let the problem\ngo unchecked; it is serious. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage Sri Lanka is full of crows. A writer\u2019s friend joked him that in Colombo there are more crows than people! Crows live in groups; they work together. They thrive on trash; basically any kind of food waste. Some think crows are good as they clean up the environment. This is a misconception. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanaka-bandarage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}