Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Not true that crows attack at random

TODAY Online Only - Not true that crows attack at random
07:10 AM Jul 29, 2009
Letter from Bhaskaran Kunju

I refer to "Sparrows, pigeons can be a nuisance, too" (July 28), a reply to my letter "Rethink shooting of crows" (July 27).

The writer mentions that "Crows do attack people when it is their breeding season" unlike sparrows or pigeons. This is a fallacious statement. Firstly crows do not attack people at random when it is breeding season, they only do so if they believe they are under threat while roosting. This is not a unique trait to crows and can be seen in sparrows and pigeons as well. In fact the oriole, which is another common species in Singapore, is just as aggressive if not more ,and is a threat to other birds as well.

I think there is a need for us to break out of this misinformed mentality of crows as devious and dangerous cretins. Apart from that I await a reply from the National Enviroment Agency over the other issues I have raised.