The resumption of a crow-shooting campaign in Singapore has revived intense debate over lethal wildlife management in the highly urbanized city-state.
Government officials revived the culling program in response to public complaints about crow attacks on pedestrians and cyclists, reports contributor Robin Hicks for Mongabay.
In a public statement in March announcing the resumption of crow shooting, National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat said that alternative measures such as trapping the birds, tree pruning, and removing nearly 9,000 nests in 2025 had proved insufficient.
How Choon Beng, director of wildlife management at the National Parks Board, told Hicks that shooting, combined with other measures, would lead to a “gradual and sustained reduction” in crow numbers.
But some experts say culling is merely a reactive measure that fails to address the underlying drivers of the bird boom.
Albert Liu, assistant director for conservation at the nonprofit Nature Society Singapore, told Hicks that culling primarily serves “to show the public that something is being done” and “treats the symptoms, not the cause.”
Ecologists point out that the hyperabundance of “nuisance” birds, such as house crows (Corvus splendens), Javan mynas (Acridotheres javanicus) and common pigeons (Columba livia), is driven entirely by human-made urban conditions.
A global review of more than 400 studies found that most crow species grow more abundant as cities expand because urban areas provide plenty of food, nesting spots, and few predators. A Singapore-specific study from 2003 supports these findings.
For example, crows often nest in the yellow flame trees (Peltophorum pterocarpum) common along Singapore’s streets, while pigeons and mynas can be found nesting on air-conditioning ledges and under sheltered walkways in public housing estates. Hawker centers in the city also provide easy access to leftover food, and many residents still feed the birds, even though it’s illegal.
Ongoing forest clearance for public housing in parts of the country is projected to expand the urban environments where these highly adaptable birds thrive.
“As long as we keep providing unlimited food and increasing numbers of nest sites, the population will grow,” John Marzluff, a professor of wildlife science at the University of Washington in the U.S., told Hicks. “This is not rocket science — it is plain biology.”
Liyin Lim, founder of the community group Urban Birds Initiative, said if people don’t learn how to coexist with the birds, Singapore will remain locked in a cycle of endless culling. “There is an unspoken painful contradiction: Urbanization plays a key role in driving the population expansion of urban-adapted birds,” she said.
Read the full story by Robin Hicks here.
Banner image: A crow poisoned by a pest control company at Sungei Tengah Lodge is seen in July 2026. Some of the birds poisoned in this location were rescued by animal welfare group ACRES and treated with a charcoal solution. Image by Robin Hicks for Mongabay.
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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