Mosman Park council calls in marksmen to cull noisy’ ravens
West Australian, Page: 3. Friday, 14 March, 2008
Marksmen will be asked to shoot ravens in Mosman Park after residents fed up with their noise and the health risk demanded the council reduce the numbers.
The council is yet to apply to the Department of Environment and Conservation to kill up to 75 ravens, but a spokeswoman for the department yesterday said there were no impediments to the council receiving a licence.
Council chief executive Paul Anderson said residents had requested the cull. “They’re concerned because the crows are scavenging through bins and creating health issues, they ‘re driving out other resident native birds.” The birds would be targeted in Buckland Hill Park on Stirling Highway and the Mosman Park Golf Club, probably during August, and would be carried out by sporting shooters groups.
Wildlife biologist Mike Bamford said shooting the ravens was not an appropriate response to controlling a native species and culling native wildlife was not a decision to be made lightly “Reading between the lines this is a perception by some people these birds are noisy and don’t like the noise and it’s a sad reflection on their attitude towards native wildlife that they think this is an appropriate response,” he said.
“They’ve tried to dream up health issues and if the ravens are spreading rubbish it seems to me the appropriate response is to put less rubbish in the bin so they can close the lids, not shoot the birds.
“The sporting shooters might be very good shots, but I find the use of them in that situation extraordinary” Dr Bamford believed the birds should be trapped instead but said ravens were “notoriously very intelligent” and even shooting them would be difficult once the birds worked out what was going on.
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