Farmers complain about “crops destroyed”, while crows slaughter chicks, ducklings and turtles
IVREA
Caught between three fires, hundreds of Canavese farmers ask for help.
In a short time “or many of our companies will close or will be heavily downsized” they say, recounting “the disastrous consequences of a year and a half of pandemic emergency” to which are added “herds of wild boars that dine undisturbed with the fruits of our work and our land”. Now the danger comes from above, from the sky. They are the corvids. Crows, crows, magpies are plundering crops. Their number has tripled, their aggression as well.
We imitate the Tuscan region
«In addition to the damage from wild boars which, increasingly numerous, continue to rage throughout the region and in the fields of the province and metropolitan city, as every year, the corvid emergency has also returned. To stop both, at the regional level – comments and proposes Fabrizio Galliati, president of Coldiretti Turin – we should imitate the decisions of the Tuscan council. With the modification of a resolution, approved on the proposal of the vice president of the Tuscany Region, Stefania Saccardi, farmers are allowed to intervene directly, if they have a hunting license and under the supervision of the provincial police, not only against wild boars, but also to defend crops against crows, crows, pigeons and nutria ».
Coldiretti presses
«A proposal welcomed with favor by Coldiretti. A just and regulated rule that would allow crops to be preserved with safety for all “- reads an official Coldiretti document which also proposes a long and elaborate study (of over thirty pages) in which it is recalled that” corvids are a danger to ‘agriculture’ and ‘there is a numerical control plan for corvids, edited by the province’s fauna and flora protection service and valid for the five-year period 2017-2021.
«Until 2012 – we read – a planning tool was in force which gave rise to control activities aimed at managing the populations of problematic species for agriculture, including crows. But the protocol, with the blocking of entries in the areas with differentiated management, was not respected by the managers of the restocking and capture zones (Zrc), by the wildlife companies and by the agri-tourism hunting (Aatv) “
«This – says the study of the metropolitan city – has led to a further growth in the population of crows that continue to damage agriculture. After a drop in the damage recorded since 2013 (10,857 reports in the five Atc of the province) compared to 2015 (“only” plus 6,007 reports of damage in agriculture) now the reports are rising.
The accounts don’t add up
“The damage from crows is estimated to be 10 percent of those reported annually by farmers on crops – explains Andrea Repossini, director of Coldiretti Turin -. The damage comes from the hooded crow and, more rarely, from the black one. Over the entire area of the Metropolitan City in the year 2020 we had 2,000 reports of damage caused by wild animals, of which 230 caused by corvids. A hooded crow can ingest 50 grams of grain per day. In freshly sown corn fields, he digs up the soil and eats the seed. In corn crops with two to three leaf seedlings, eradicate the plant to pick up and swallow what remains of the sprouted seed. The greatest damage of the crows is borne by the orchards, where the crows peck the best and tallest berries of apple, pear and cherry, as soon as they turn color ».
Bloodthirsty race
It should not be forgotten that they attack and kill chicks, ducklings and small pets if left unattended.
“The Plan of cnumerical monitoring of corvids for the years 2017-2021 provides updated data with respect to the Kilometer Sighting Indices (Ika), regarding the abundance of gray crows in the fields throughout the province of Turin, referring to the year 2016. In Canavese, from Romano a St. George, gives Lombardore a Ivrea the numbers speak of stationary or slightly increasing indices.
“The indices and percentages leave the time they find – explain from various farms between Torre, Pavone and Rivarolo Canavese – The reimbursement of damage to crops due to ungulates and corvids, if truly paid in full and within a reasonable time, would bring the financial statements of any entity. The containment policies are almost ridiculous. And sound or similar remedies against expensive and ineffective corvids. It is necessary to contain the number. Among other things, the hunt for these ravenous vultures is far from simple and very expensive. It is necessary to lure them into delimited areas with similar silhouettes pretending to peck a carcass, use sound calls, mount a carousel (a kind of metal circle two meters above the ground in which crows and crows in plastic and feathers simulate flight) and finally, knowing how to perfectly camouflage oneself as well as being excellent shooters ».