このページはフレーム対応ブラウザ用に作成されています。下のリンクは非フレーム使用ページですのでそちらをご覧ください。
この記事をプリントする
カラスをどうする?
筆者がニューヨークで暮らしていたころ、身近にいたのはハトだった。
ハワイで暮らす今は、熱帯に暮らす鳥の声で目覚める。
そして東京の鳥といったら——カラスである。
都市が生み出すゴミと共に生きるカラスを、われわれはどう扱えばいいのだろうか。
Part Four — The birds
Every morning I am woken by the sounds of tropical birds. At the base of Diamond Head, just around the corner from bustling Waikiki, it sounds like a jungle coming to life. It is a wonderful way to wake every morning.
Last month when I was in Tokyo I was woken up by a very different sound. It was the sound of 20 to 30 crows combing the streets for food and then swarming onto the roof of a nearby apartment building. In the last 20 years we all have seen an incredible increase in Tokyo's crow population. The mayor has promised to figure out a way to make them go away, but so far nothing has worked. The truth is that it's not just Tokyo. As with rats and cockroaches, all over the world the crow population continues to increase as our cities (and their piles of trash) grow.
Crows are smart. They remember people and places, are able to learn to do things, have a complex language system, and in some cases have been known to mimic human voice. There's even a great video that asks whether or not crows can be trained:(http://www.ted.com/in dex.php/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html)
Many mythologies, including those of the Native Americans, believe the crow (or raven) to be important. Chinese mythology however paints a very bad picture of this bird and associates it with bad luck. The truth is that they continue to adapt and live in close proximity to human beings. In a time when many species are becoming extinct, the crow is thriving on the trash generated daily by our cities.
The situation is complex. Do we exterminate them? Do we try to move them to a different place and hope they don't come back? Is there something we can do to make them go away peacefully? Or do we just continue to live side by side with them and go on with our lives? It is easy to trap a mouse or squash a cockroach, but these birds are big (and getting bigger) and can be very scary. Maybe the choice is to train them, but until that becomes a viable option, there will have to be another solution.
I grew up with pigeons in New York. They were never very smart or scary and they kind of lived all around us. Although I have never been afraid of a pigeon, when one of these large Tokyo crows lands on my veranda, I have to think twice before opening the window and shooing it away.
- At the base of 〜
- 〜のふもとでは
- just around the corner from 〜
- 〜のすぐ近く
- bustling
- にぎやかな
- coming to life
- 目覚める
- crows
- カラス
- combing
- 〜をしらみつぶしに探す
- swarming onto 〜
- 〜の上に群がる
- mayor
- 東京都知事
- figure out 〜
- 〜を見つけ出す
- nothing has worked
- 何もうまくいっていない
- The truth is that 〜
- 実は〜だ
- rats
- ネズミ
- cockroaches
- ゴキブリ
- trash
- ごみ
- smart
- 利口な
- complex
- 複雑な
- language system
- 言語体系
- mimic
- 〜をまねする
- mythologies
- 神話
- Native Americans
- アメリカ先住民
- raven
- ワタリガラス
- paints
- 〜を描く
- associates 〜 with 〜
- 〜を〜と関連付ける
- adapt and live in close proximity to 〜
- 〜に近いところに適応し、生息する
- In a time when 〜
- 〜のころには
- species
- 種
- extinct
- 絶滅して
- thriving
- 元気に育つ
- exterminate
- 駆除する
- side by side with 〜
- 〜と共存して
- go on with our lives
- 生活を続ける
- trap
- 〜をわなにかける
- squash
- 〜をぺちゃんこにする
- scary
- 怖い
- viable option
- 実行可能な選択肢
- pigeons
- ハト
- kind of
- いわば
- lands on 〜
- 〜に降り立つ
- veranda
- ベランダ
- think twice
- ためらう
- shooting it away
- それを追い払う