MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsyna). --Those nasty and vile Moscow crows are becoming more and more defiant. Having experienced it myself not long ago.
While strolling down Arbat Street I saw a crow pecking the charming head of fairy Princess Turandot's statue, which stands near Vachtangov Theatre. I shooed the crow and swung at it with my bag. It dartingly swooped down at me, made a menacing loop over my head (apparently meaning "Beat it!") and resumed its seat on Turandot's golden curls.
Her statue is not likely to be adorned with real gold. But the domes of Moscow's numerous churches are gilded indeed. Our dear friends can't help poking at them. All day long they are continuously pecking at the golden domes and the wind is blowing the valuable flakes away. Caretakers and restorers are going nuts! These mischief makers are already called a "contingent construction risk."
Our brazen friends know little about punishment. Trying to get rid of them is like flying to the moon without a spaceship. Impossible! "It's no secret, that these birds are among the smartest of all of our feathered friends," Dr. Vladimir Ivanitsky, research fellow at Moscow State University and Doctor of Biological Sciences, says. "Waging war against the crows is almost the same as battling wolves, which are also very clever and cunning animals, difficult at best. A crow is intrinsically a feathered wolf," he explained. Scientifically, crows and parrots are mentally equal. "The innate activity and different aptitudes of these birds are manifestations of their intellect," he continued.
There are many types of these flying menaces in the world. Their population is vast because they eat everything and have a high survival rate. Moscow's wonderful crows have tough beaks, they are grey and rather large, or shall we say fat, - up to 0,5 kg. They have been reeking havoc on the capital for centuries, killing their feathered neighbours, damaging roofs and destroying historic monuments. The Kremlin is notorious for its protracted and all out war against them. Every evening one can watch an almost surreal scene: huge flocks of these screaming and ritually dancing winged pests flying round the towers. Afterwards they perch in the trees of Alexandrovsky garden near the Kremlin walls. At dawn the entire squadron takes off from its roosting place in a terrible din and flies to the suburbs to feast on the scrapyards. After gorging themselves the birds return to the city and engage in some mostly destructive activities.
Why have the crows chosen the Kremlin as their headquarters? The thing is that the Alexandrovsky garden has traditionally been their roosting place. Besides these cunning creatures realize that the warmest place in Moscow is the Kremlin. "Moscow's circular design creates an air bubble over the city with the center being the warmest place. The temperature on Red Square is almost five degrees higher than in the suburbs. The clever crows choose the warm center in order to save energy." Ivanitsky explained.
The crows' harrowing noise over the Kremlin drove Stalin crazy, and his security forces ran their legs off chasing the birds away. However, crows have a highly developed instinct for self-preservation. Firing rifles at them didn't help either. They quickly understood the rifles' range and simply flew out of distance, probably thinking "stupid humans." They laughed when the attempt was made to poison them, they just didn't eat the "bad" food. Ha-Ha! Normally birds are frightened by bright lights and when floodlights were used against the Kremlin's uninvited quests they just yawned and went back to sleep.
Struggling against the crows has been a pain in the neck for all Kremlin superintendents, including the current one, Sergey Khlebnikov. Today the Kremlin is the proud home of almost five thousand crows. During the mating season they are absolutely fearless and skate on the cathedrals' golden domes. Nevertheless there have been some achievements in the war against them. Today the Kremlin is protected by a new aerial defence force. A specially trained detachment of falcons and hawks patrol the skies above its golden domes. Shooting down all enemy intruders (pigeons included). Some of them - the goshawks Alfa, Masha and Black - are the true heroes of this war and the crow's nightmare.
Sound and noise effects, including special music, that scares the crows, are also used as a preventive anti-crow measure in the Kremlin. "However this method isn't very efficient," - Vladimir Ivanitsky says. Ornithologists even tried to record the crows' own danger calls, which are the most dreadfully alarming sounds for them. They caught a crow, shook it to near death in front of a microphone and then freed it, maybe buried it. But even these sounds gave no permanent effect: the clever birds understood there was no real danger there, only sounds. Imagine that!
Moscow Zoo employees have found a practical solution to the crow problem. The crows cause even more troubles for the zoo than for the Kremlin: eating the animals' food, hurting waterfowl and stealing their nestlings. Today special crow-snares are placed on the zoo's territory. It is a net-walled box with a opening on the lid and a trough full of food inside. A crow can get in, but can't get out - the vaunted clever bird can't guess to put its wings together and edge out through the opening.
However, such snares can't be placed on Red Square, near the Uspensky Cathedral or any other church in the city. So in the near future our lovely and dear friends will just keep on pecking at the golden domes. Anyway we will gladly gild them again and again and again!
