Restoring balance to the crow population in Kenya’s ecosystem

The word ‘invasive’ has often been used to signify species not in their native environment. They are often introduced to new habitats through human activities, either intentionally or unintentionally. 

In the 1890s, the House Crow Corvus splendens was introduced in Zanzibar to control garbage. The solution soon became a problem of its own as the population rapidly increased over 15 years, becoming labeled an invasive species and spreading along the East African coast. 

A Rocha Kenya’s Eric Kinoti notes that the introduction of an invasive species disrupts and destabilizes ecosystems by causing competition between species. The House Crow population grew to over 700,000 birds along the coast of Kenya, which majorly affected tourism as the birds invaded hotels, destroyed crops and placed a strain on the marine ecosystem with their feeding on marine life. It is not the crows’ fault for existing, but human intervention created a problem.  

A Rocha Kenya, in partnership with Kenya Wildlife Service, has set out to restore balance to the ecosystem by making a first attempt to control the population using a poison called starlicide. Crows are, however, very intelligent creatures with reasoning as good as a seven-year-old human and with the ability to adapt quickly to any traps set to catch them. Starlicide is the preferred poison because it breaks down fast in the crow’s body and does not cause secondary poisoning to other animals that come into contact with it. Not an easy decision, but, ‘The goal is to manage the population in a year before they surpass the one million population mark,’ Eric explained. 

In July this year, A Rocha Kenya received the first batch of starlicide in hopes that it will significantly reduce the number of crows, without affecting other species. So far, the results are promising and starlicide is said to have an 80% success rate within four months.