Singapore’s crow population rose to 160,000 in 2024: NParks

This is up from about 7,200 in 2016. Read more at straitstimes.com.

SINGAPORE – The number of crows in Singapore grew by more than 20 times over less than a decade, The Straits Times has learnt.

On Feb 23, the authorities announced that they planned to resume the shooting of crows in March after a six-year hiatus, as alternative population control methods were deemed inadequate amid a rise in reports about crow attacks.

Shooting had been discontinued in 2020 after instances of pellets striking residences.

Based on the National Parks Board’s (NParks) latest population survey, the number of house crows (Corvus splendens) was about 160,000 in 2024, the board’s group director for wildlife management, Mr How Choon Beng, told ST.

This is more than 20 times the figure cited in an earlier population study in 2016, when shooting operations still took place, with the birds on mainland Singapore numbering about 7,295 then.

Mr How said the use of firearms adds to the existing suite of measures to control the country’s crow population, which includes removing nests, deploying traps and pruning trees to reduce the number of birds that roost there.