HUNTED BY DYNAMITE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21156, 1 October 1938, Page 15

HUNTED BY DYNAMITE

DESTRUCTION OF CROWS TRAPPING INEFFECTUAL Crows are now being hunted with dynamite in America. Ordinary methods of shooting and trapping have proved so ineffectual that the birds are multiplying by the million and are being further reinforced by millions of visiting Canadian crows. They have become a serious menace to agriculture and farmers have now discarded their guns and resorted to dynamite. Carefully concealed, a crow hunter using a crow call as a decoy, lures the wary pests to the hedges where the bombs and wiring are placed. The bombs now used are 21 Inches in diameter and ten Inches long. They are filled half with dynamite and half with drop-shot enclosed in a tin container. At intervals of 20 to 30 feet the bombs are placed in hedges and trees connected by electric wires to a blasting machine or detonator which explodes them simultaneously. Another type of bomb is made of concrete and is filled with dynamite and drop-shot. When large numbers of crows have been attracted to the trees and hedges a plunger is thrust down and a terrific explosion rends the air. The ground becomes littered with dead crows. Two

or three men can accomplish more with a few of these bombs than a whole army of hunters. Their quarry for one day frequently numbers up to 15,000. As many as 14,500 crows have been killed in a single bombing raid in Ohio. In the same State last year over 76,876 crows were killed, while in Texas 20,000 were blown up in a single rookery. Fortunately, South Canterbury is not worried with crows. In Australia there have been divergences of opinion regarding the crow menace. Crows thrive upon insects and have proved useful in keeping down the blowfly and grasshopper pests; but they have also the pernicious habit of plucking out the eyes of sickly sheep and lambs, raiding orchards, and spreading the growth of the prickly pear.