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Japan Fights Crowds of Crows (2008)

nytimes.com

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Re: Japan Fights Crowds of Crows (2008)

#21

Post by KineticLensman »

nwatson wrote: post #19

Dealing with these crows seems like it would be a good computer-vision/ML/AI/data/drone/"weapons" problem. Killing baby crows in the nest in Tokyo a la [1] would necessarily remain human work, but open-air operations could be done with drones. Would there be a non-lethal approach to harassing crows that would drive them away? If a program chooses the lethal approach, what weapons and disposal methods? How much would…

I'd suggest that non-lethal intimidation wouldn't necessarily work on crows. Crows routinely mob other threat birds (e.g. buzzards, in my experience) and even a single crow will chase a buzzard off.

Firing bullets or similar from a drone might not be a good idea in a crowded urban environment (damage to people and / or property).

Drones deploying nets to catch them (or at least make them fall out of the sky)? Perhaps, until the crows cotton on, to the extent of swarming the drones.

Self-detonating proximity drones? Have the same issues as firing bullets (falling debris) and not very economic.

Re: Japan Fights Crowds of Crows (2008)

#22

Post by Reason077 »

Around here it's Pigeons, but they seem to occupy the same niche as these Crows. Part of the problem is that not only are they good scavengers, but some people actively feed them causing not only a huge mess (piles of rotting bread dumped on the pavements), but it encourages the birds to congregate and multiply.

Re: Japan Fights Crowds of Crows (2008)

#24

Post by Reason077 »

emodendroket wrote: post #9

I was in Hokkaido, for a while. They have huge crows (I believe significantly larger than the ones that are found in Honshu) who are very clever and can be quite aggressive. I remember experiencing them taking a snack I had not even opened out of a bicycle basket to open and eat it. Another time, I went with my wife (my girlfriend at the time) to the zoo and she bought a meat bun and walked outside. The employees beg…

In New Zealand I used to get attacked regularly by magpies, a large and aggressive crow-like bird, while riding my bike near trees where they were presumably nesting. They'd come at you from behind and swoop at your head, either passing very close to scare you, or even clawing at my helmet as they passed. Very frightening if you're not expecting it!

Apparently on some occasions people would get attacked seriously enough to draw blood. The weird thing is that as soon as you got off your bike and pushed it, they'd be scared off and wouldn't come near you. But something about bike riding seemed to drive them insane...

Re: Japan Fights Crowds of Crows (2008)

#25

Post by picsao »

KineticLensman wrote: post #21
nwatson wrote: post #19

Dealing with these crows seems like it would be a good computer-vision/ML/AI/data/drone/"weapons" problem. Killing baby crows in the nest in Tokyo a la [1] would necessarily remain human work, but open-air operations could be done with drones. Would there be a non-lethal approach to harassing crows that would drive them away? If a program chooses the lethal approach, what weapons and disposal methods? How much would…

I'd suggest that non-lethal intimidation wouldn't necessarily work on crows. Crows routinely mob other threat birds (e.g. buzzards, in my experience) and even a single crow will chase a buzzard off. Firing bullets or similar from a drone might not be a good idea in a crowded urban environment (damage to people and / or property). Drones deploying nets to catch them (or at least make them fall out of the sky)? Perhaps…

Glue net cannon

Re: Japan Fights Crowds of Crows (2008)

#26

Post by veidr »

I live in Tokyo, and and if I become a billionaire, the second thing I will do (after starting a thrash metal guitar university for girls) will be to commission a Planet Earth II level documentary about the crows here.

They are fucking HUGE, they own the city (especially on trash-collection days), and they can go really high. When I moved back here I stayed a few weeks in a hotel on the 53rd floor. There were no pigeons, or any other birds I could discern, other than the fucking murder of crows who owned the place.

I now live on the top floor of a 9-story apartment building, and I am trying very hard to make friends with the two crows who have apparently successfully acquired the crow territorial rights to it, and live on the roof above me.

Anecdotal evidence suggests they won't shit on your balcony, or try to peck the back of your head, if you do so.

Also, as a child I lived in Bodega, California, and my house was featured in Hitchcock's The Birds. So I might be like, overcompensating a little...

Re: Japan Fights Crowds of Crows (2008)

#27

Post by nwatson »

KineticLensman wrote: post #21
nwatson wrote: post #19

Dealing with these crows seems like it would be a good computer-vision/ML/AI/data/drone/"weapons" problem. Killing baby crows in the nest in Tokyo a la [1] would necessarily remain human work, but open-air operations could be done with drones. Would there be a non-lethal approach to harassing crows that would drive them away? If a program chooses the lethal approach, what weapons and disposal methods? How much would…

I'd suggest that non-lethal intimidation wouldn't necessarily work on crows. Crows routinely mob other threat birds (e.g. buzzards, in my experience) and even a single crow will chase a buzzard off. Firing bullets or similar from a drone might not be a good idea in a crowded urban environment (damage to people and / or property). Drones deploying nets to catch them (or at least make them fall out of the sky)? Perhaps…

Lasers. Might incapacitate, kill, or blind crows, would need to avoid collateral damage. Maybe with remote human intervention on the kill switch, one person per bank of 50 drones.

Nathan Myhrvold supposedly displayed a mosquito-killing laser photonic fence some years ago [1]. A laser to deal with crows would need to be much more powerful.

[1] https://www.fastcompany.com/3059127/what-happened-to-the-mos...

Re: Japan Fights Crowds of Crows (2008)

#28

Post by jschwartzi »

veidr wrote: post #26

I live in Tokyo, and and if I become a billionaire, the second thing I will do (after starting a thrash metal guitar university for girls) will be to commission a Planet Earth II level documentary about the crows here. They are fucking HUGE, they own the city (especially on trash-collection days), and they can go really high. When I moved back here I stayed a few weeks in a hotel on the 53rd floor. There were no pige…

When a coworker and I were in Ginza we spent an hour or so wandering around Hamarikyu Gardens there. That was the first time I saw one of the Japanese crows. At first, I thought it was a raven, but it was brazen enough to land less than 6 feet away from me, and I got to see how big it actually was.

It was taller than my knees.

Crows in the Pacific Northwest have this delicate little "caw caw" that they make. It's sort of endearing to me because of the association with home. When this thing opened its beak it was no little bit unnerving to me. No small "caw" passed from its beak, but rather a sound proportional to the size of the thing.

We backed away slowly.

Re: Japan Fights Crowds of Crows (2008)

#29

Post by MDib »

Reason077 wrote: post #24
emodendroket wrote: post #9

I was in Hokkaido, for a while. They have huge crows (I believe significantly larger than the ones that are found in Honshu) who are very clever and can be quite aggressive. I remember experiencing them taking a snack I had not even opened out of a bicycle basket to open and eat it. Another time, I went with my wife (my girlfriend at the time) to the zoo and she bought a meat bun and walked outside. The employees beg…

In New Zealand I used to get attacked regularly by magpies, a large and aggressive crow-like bird, while riding my bike near trees where they were presumably nesting. They'd come at you from behind and swoop at your head, either passing very close to scare you, or even clawing at my helmet as they passed. Very frightening if you're not expecting it! Apparently on some occasions people would get attacked seriously eno…

Fascinating, the first time I heard about this phenomenon is when this amusing video [1] was doing the rounds. Apparently it's a seasonal issue largely linked to them being particularly aggressive in their defence of newly-hatched broods. What's weird though is that in certain magpie-swooping zones, the swooping is selective [2]. It seems quite accepted that corvids can recognise faces and otherwise identify individual humans, but what makes it single out people that haven't attacked it is a real mystery.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGGTcYfrEZU [2] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/28/when-mag...

Re: Japan Fights Crowds of Crows (2008)

#30

Post by lioeters »

flatfilefan wrote: post #3
lawlessone wrote: post #2

2008, still very interesting.

I always wonder why aren’t there “ten years gone” follow up articles. Like what has happened with crows in Japan since 2008? Media should do more of that as a matter of routine.

Totally agree with this idea of long-term follow-up articles, I wish there was more of that.
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