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Essay

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.

Shukan ST: May 22, 2009

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Essay Part Four — The birds By Garry Bassin 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. Shukan ST: May 22, 2009 (C) All rights reserved