By MICHINORI ISHIDAIRA/ Staff Writer
September 8, 2023 at 07:00 JST
Crows gather at a garbage collection site. (Provided by Adachi Ward)
Tokyo’s Adachi Ward is blaring the warning squawking of crows to protect garbage collection sites from the avian marauders.
In a test that runs until September, “Crow Controller” devices have been set up at five trash -collection locations in the ward to reproduce the sound crows make to alert other birds of nearby dangers.
The noise-generating machine was developed by CrowLab, an Utsunomiya-based start-up affiliated with Utsunomiya University.
Crow Controller uses an infrared sensor to detect nearing crows and then plays a crow's warning caws for 10 seconds to encourage the birds to fly elsewhere.
Although the crow population in the Japanese capital has shrunk considerably, the birds continue to make huge messes in the five locations being tested in Adachi Ward.
The ward is the first municipality in Tokyo to use Crow Controller.
Adachi Ward has 30,000 garbage pickup points, but the five zones tested, including around Takenotsuka Station, Nishiarai Station and the Higashi-Ayase district, are exposed to significantly higher numbers of crow attacks.
Waste from restaurants near Takenotsuka Station often gets scattered by the birds, leading to constant complaints from residents in the neighborhood.
After the test results are examined, the Crow Controller project could be expanded to cover the entire ward.
The crows are believed to come from Toneri Park, Higashi-Ayase Park and other areas in the ward. The number of crows living in Adachi Ward is unknown.
To thwart the crows, the ward lends out foldable trash collection containers with lids, but they required larger spaces and maintenance.
Adachi Ward learned of CrowLab, signed an outsourcing contract with it, and decided to cooperate with Utsunomiya University in the battle against crow damage.
The ward is also seeking improvements in citizens’ manners by, for example, setting up fliers around garbage collection sites to illustrate appropriate trash disposal methods.
The ward will assess these measures to develop more effective ways to share such tips.
“We will be considering countermeasures from both aspects--the use of the auditory device and improved garbage disposals,” Sumio Hasegawa, head of Adachi Ward’s cleaning bureau, said.
FIGHT ACROSS TOKYO
Since fiscal 2001, the Tokyo metropolitan government has been taking measures to reduce crow-related problems.
The huge volume of food scraps discarded daily in the crowded metropolis provides the prime energy source for crows.
The metropolitan government said the crow population surged from around 2000, prompting a campaign to reduce their numbers.
A total of 243,500 crows have since been captured. And the population was reduced to 8,699 in fiscal 2022 from 36,416 in fiscal 2001 at 40 reference areas in central Tokyo.
In fiscal 2001, the metropolitan government received 3,754 citizen complaints and reports about crows “messing up trash,” “cawing noisily,” “attacking people” and causing other problems.
In fiscal 2022, there were just 342 complaints.
Municipalities in the capital also provide anti-bird nets to keep garbage pickup sites safe from crow raids.
Some governments are urging the use of yellowish garbage bags that are difficult for crows to peer through.
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