Using raven birth control to help desert torts

[innocent]

Washington County approves agreement for raven population control inside desert reserve

ST. GEORGE — Ravens who prey on juvenile desert tortoises in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve will be subjected to “birth control” in the near future following a decision made by the Washington County Commission. Among the items addressed during Tuesday afternoon’s County Commission meeting, a...

www.stgeorgeutah.com

Cool little article. Ravens are very bad for the Desert Tortoises.

 

[Tom]

Every little bit helps, but I'm not sure that is going to be enough given that they said the population is already 10 times normal, and the adults can live for decades. Seems like blocking reproduction isn't going to solve the problem. They also need to remove the excess, even though the idea of that might not be "popular".

 

[wellington]

Eventually it will help, just not right away. Will take years.

 

[Yvonne G]

Every little bit helps, but I'm not sure that is going to be enough given that they said the population is already 10 times normal, and the adults can live for decades. Seems like blocking reproduction isn't going to solve the problem. They also need to remove the excess, even though the idea of that might not be "popular".

Train your falcons to go after ravens?????

 

[Tom]

Train your falcons to go after ravens?????

Its legal to hunt them and there is a season and a bag limit... I've considered this many times. I would only want to do it in desert tortoise habitat areas, and that is an awful lot farther away from me than my current rabbit fields...

The most sensible way to significantly reduce the population, to me anyway, would be to put a bounty on their heads and let people trap and shoot them. Not very many people would go do it, but it might make an impact if enough people did. We have created an unnatural population explosion of them, so I'm not opposed to us trying to correct that over abundance.

 

[EppsDynasty]

What a Dandy Kiwinkidink .... Recently we were blessed with a visit to our place by a Desert Tortoise Biologist that works in our area for Solar Farms properties. (And for those of you keeping track ... This is another example of me learning more info about Solar). Absolutely fascinating info she possesses, and I did everything I could to get as much out of her as possible. One of the things we discussed was Ravens, and their impact on Desert Tortoises and their habitat. They pay for people to scare the Ravens with lazers, noises and other things mainly biologist. We did get a little into the whole picture of Why? Why are there so many? Why are they so prevalent? When @Tom commented on getting rid of excess, for a second I thought he was speaking of "Humans excess." A BIG part of their explosion is us and our trash or excess. This is of course an intelligence issue as well, they are smart very smart. Ravens use tools but other birds "speak" with memory, it depends on what you think is more intelligent as to what bird you say is the smartest in the world.

Now 20+ years ago as a commercial roofer I had to deal with Ravens/Crows very often. There was no other though like the ones in a nearby town. It was populated by more crows than people by exponential numbers. As a roofer we had to wash, repair, prime, then double top coat small sections at a time and work our way across the roof. This was due to the feces of the Crows and it's super corrosive qualities. This problem with their poop was such a big deal it VOIDED the roofs warranties given by both the Roofing materials maker and us the Installers. This town hired a man from the east coast to come to this town for weeks and scare the Crows away. The most productive way to get them to move away was supposed to be done in the dark. So for 6-8 hours a night downtown sounded like a Protest, Parade, Religious sermon, Construction Project and any other annoying noises he could come up with. This went on for weeks, at the same time I was roofing a Furniture Store and several other small businesses linked together by their roofs. It did nothing to slow down or lessen the poop we had to deal with, it did nothing to lessen the population either. This town finally gave up and to this day I have never seen a town with such a high population of Ravens/Crows. I'm kinda in the camp of Tom, without serious measures taken that will offend people it will only grow exponentially every day.
I must say that I do like them and their intelligence but have to be honest about the real threat they pose to our torts and animals. Example: yesterday I believe there was a Raven going for our baby ducks that I scared by moving inside their pen. I was working on their new house and it did not see me until it came over the house and immediately changed course.

 

[Tom]

What a Dandy Kiwinkidink .... Recently we were blessed with a visit to our place by a Desert Tortoise Biologist that works in our area for Solar Farms properties. (And for those of you keeping track ... This is another example of me learning more info about Solar). Absolutely fascinating info she possesses, and I did everything I could to get as much out of her as possible. One of the things we discussed was Ravens, and their impact on Desert Tortoises and their habitat. They pay for people to scare the Ravens with lazers, noises and other things mainly biologist. We did get a little into the whole picture of Why? Why are there so many? Why are they so prevalent? When @Tom commented on getting rid of excess, for a second I thought he was speaking of "Humans excess." A BIG part of their explosion is us and our trash or excess. This is of course an intelligence issue as well, they are smart very smart. Ravens use tools but other birds "speak" with memory, it depends on what you think is more intelligent as to what bird you say is the smartest in the world.

Now 20+ years ago as a commercial roofer I had to deal with Ravens/Crows very often. There was no other though like the ones in a nearby town. It was populated by more crows than people by exponential numbers. As a roofer we had to wash, repair, prime, then double top coat small sections at a time and work our way across the roof. This was due to the feces of the Crows and it's super corrosive qualities. This problem with their poop was such a big deal it VOIDED the roofs warranties given by both the Roofing materials maker and us the Installers. This town hired a man from the east coast to come to this town for weeks and scare the Crows away. The most productive way to get them to move away was supposed to be done in the dark. So for 6-8 hours a night downtown sounded like a Protest, Parade, Religious sermon, Construction Project and any other annoying noises he could come up with. This went on for weeks, at the same time I was roofing a Furniture Store and several other small businesses linked together by their roofs. It did nothing to slow down or lessen the poop we had to deal with, it did nothing to lessen the population either. This town finally gave up and to this day I have never seen a town with such a high population of Ravens/Crows. I'm kinda in the camp of Tom, without serious measures taken that will offend people it will only grow exponentially every day.
I must say that I do like them and their intelligence but have to be honest about the real threat they pose to our torts and animals. Example: yesterday I believe there was a Raven going for our baby ducks that I scared by moving inside their pen. I was working on their new house and it did not see me until it came over the house and immediately changed course.

Its becoming pretty common practice now to hire falconers with an "abatement license" to come in and drive pest birds away. Seagulls and pigeons are no longer a problem on the boardwalk on Catalina Island, and my friend has contract with several landfills to drive the ravens, crows and gulls away from the landfills. Some form of bird abatement is a requirement to keep the permits and licenses to operate a landfill. In the past they have tried many different things to drive them away, and nothing works better than predatory birds. We don't actually hunt or catch the pest birds, we just fly our predators around in the area and the gulls and ravens decide its better to be somewhere else.