Tanzania: How Is House Crow Eradication Going on?

The Indian House Crow, Corvus splendens. Actually is a native bird species found in India though it can be found in other part of the World like In Tanzania (East Africa). However, this is not a species I'm ever happy to see. Not because there aren't interesting things to say about it, of course, but because it really belongs in India and seems to cause a number of problems elsewhere.

The indian House Crow (I.H.C) are native in India but they have been introduced in Tanzania as exotic species

The interesting thing about house crows is that they originally come from India and south-east Asia. They were actually first introduced to East Africa in the late 1890s, when they were apparently deliberately introduced to control rubbish on Zanzibar. they eat rubbish (lots of it too), but none was thinking that they might also like to eat other things too- like all the eggs and chicks of small native birds, or even young chickens (meaning outdoor chicken farming is now impossible where they're very common), or young maize cobs. They also carry and possibly spread some rather nasty diseases around too. Now, it turns out that house crows are an excellent example of an invasive alien species.

The indian House crow eat rubbish though the can spread diseases too

People in Dar es Salaam have been advised to avoid Indian House Crows as the city undertakes its latest attempt to eradicate the growing number of birds.The crows are being killed with food laced with DRC 1339 poison which the ministry of natural resources and tourism says has no “serious effect” on humans. The poison is biodegradable and kills the crows eight hours after ingestion, with the majority of the birds dying in their roosting areas at night. The study investigated nest success of the Indian House Crow in different tree species with varying canopy covers and heights, this study revealed that two exotic tree species, mango Mangifera indica and madras thorn Pithecellobium dulce are the preferred tree species for nesting. The findings of this study showed that despite the selective behaviour of the House Crow, their nest success does not depend on the height, crown cover or type of tree species selected.

Dar es Salaam residents have been advised not to discard food near their homes as this only brings the poisoned birds closer to residential areas. Since its launch in December 2010 until March this year, over 890,000 crows have been killed.

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily of the scientific study