Comment by nwatson | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nwatson | Hacker News Reader

Dealing with these crows seems like it would be a good computer-vision/ML/AI/data/drone/"weapons" problem. Killing baby crows in the nest in Tokyo a la [1] would necessarily remain human work, but open-air operations could be done with drones.

Would there be a non-lethal approach to harassing crows that would drive them away? If a program chooses the lethal approach, what weapons and disposal methods? How much would a program cost, and would that cost be offset by savings on the extra garbage-collection efforts that crows cause in [1], and other factors? How would crows adapt their strategies? Could similar approaches be used for rats in NYC, for example? Would there be downsides to a NYC without rats, a Tokyo without crows?

How long till technology would make a program like that viable? If Google is working on automated drone human targeting, the crows-in-Tokyo seems like a much more constrained problem.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWw_87A1t-o

EDIT: technological viability.

Armed drones flying around killing crows using machine learning seems like an idea with a huge potential for unintended consequences.

Google may be interested in the problem.

Good idea. Though, I suspect the crows would beat the drones. I think it would be an arms-race of sorts. Crows constantly adapting to the drones changing tactics. I would love to see this play out.

Here in the States we have Coyotes. The governments of this country have tried in vain over a century to kill off the coyotes but their intelligence and other traits have kept their numbers growing.

They could subsidize the effort with a TV show(someone call amazon), I know I would definitely watch an arms race between drones and crows.

I'd suggest that non-lethal intimidation wouldn't necessarily work on crows. Crows routinely mob other threat birds (e.g. buzzards, in my experience) and even a single crow will chase a buzzard off.

Firing bullets or similar from a drone might not be a good idea in a crowded urban environment (damage to people and / or property).

Drones deploying nets to catch them (or at least make them fall out of the sky)? Perhaps, until the crows cotton on, to the extent of swarming the drones.

Self-detonating proximity drones? Have the same issues as firing bullets (falling debris) and not very economic.

Lasers. Might incapacitate, kill, or blind crows, would need to avoid collateral damage. Maybe with remote human intervention on the kill switch, one person per bank of 50 drones.

Nathan Myhrvold supposedly displayed a mosquito-killing laser photonic fence some years ago [1]. A laser to deal with crows would need to be much more powerful.

[1] https://www.fastcompany.com/3059127/what-happened-to-the-mos...

Firing drone-lasers powerful enough to burn or blind might not be a good idea, especially where beams could bounce off reflective surfaces.

A ground-based laser would pack a lot more power.

I know of some towns in upstate NY that employ "crow hazing" techniques to harass and eventually drive away large flocks. Typically these groups tend to use nonlethal (and as non physically damaging as possible) methods like air rifles and lasers, and sometimes just bright lights.

http://www.wwnytv.com/story/37317955/crow-hazing-in-watertow...

No, we're not going to go around maiming animals just to satisfy your thirst for drones and lasers.

Clean kill or nothing.

Could drones be used to fire nets at the birds? The birds could be encapsulated so they can't fly away and then either left to starve to death or be picked up for execution later.

Surely it can't be easy to design a reliable system for storing, firing and reloading the nets? How about designing an extra sticky type of silly string? It could be prayed on the crows until they are unable to fly. All in the form of an aerosol can.

There are much easier and much more natural solutions. Chief among these is employing Falcons, which are like drones except they're alive, much faster than crows or drones, and incentivized (by food).

Sometimes you don't need a technological solution, sometimes what we already have is good enough and it doesn't get much better than simply using the existing circle of life.

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