<p>多年來，東京居民早晨醒來時常聽到烏鴉撕扯垃圾袋的聲音，城市的后街上滿是昨晚晚餐的殘骸。如今，這些場景大多消失了，這要歸功於一項持續 25 年的減少烏鴉數量的運動。\n12 月進行的一項調查顯示，東京的烏鴉數量已降至 2000 年代初峯值的不到 20%。\n 城市官員和鳥類專家表示，這一成功源於市民的自律、細緻的垃圾管理以及居民願意改變日常習慣的態度。\n 在 1990 年代，數量激增的烏鴉將東京的巷子變成了覓食場所。\n 它們被夜間留在餐館外的塑料垃圾袋吸引，學會了撕開垃圾袋，在早晨收集之前大快朵頤。居民們很快對這種混亂和威脅感到厭倦。\n 這些大型、聰明的鳥類在繁殖季節變得越來越具攻擊性，向路人俯衝並襲擊小鳥的巢穴。\n 烏鴉棲息的公園被鳥糞覆蓋，而它們對亮色電線和閃亮部件的偏好導致了停電和光纖電纜損壞。\n\n 到 2001 年，研究人員在東京的三個主要棲息地：明治神宮、豐島岡公墓和國立自然科學博物館，記錄到創紀錄的 18,658 只烏鴉。向市政府的投訴數量達到了數千件。\n 如今，這一情況發生了戲劇性的變化。到 2024 年，僅有 293 起投訴，數量不到本世紀初的十分之一。\n 自然主義者、東京信息大學前文化人類學教授凱文·肖特表示，烏鴉數量的下降在他居住的鄰近千葉縣也有所體現。\n 官員們採取了多種措施來對付烏鴉，從捕捉和移除巢穴到使用毒餌。但肖特表示，最終證明最有效的措施是更簡單的辦法。\n“這只是更好地控制垃圾的問題，現在東京的餐館和其他企業在一天結束時不再將垃圾袋扔在街上，” 他在《亞洲週刊》中説道。\n 城市建立了配有重金屬蓋的公共垃圾站，而微妙的社會壓力確保了公眾的遵守，肖特説。\n“如果城市裏沒有食物，那麼烏鴉就會回到它們最初棲息的山區或沿海地區。”\n 其他城市也採取了措施來遏制烏鴉的威脅。2010 年 12 月，大阪郊區的箕面市通過了一項地方條例，禁止居民將食物留給烏鴉，任何被抓到餵食害鳥或拒絕官員進入其花園以確保遵守法律的人將面臨最高 100,000 日元（約合 633 美元）的罰款。\n\n 一位日本科學家進一步改變了烏鴉的數量，花費 20 年時間記錄和解讀烏鴉的叫聲，並開發出一種設備，可以發出警告聲來嚇跑這些生物。\n 築原直樹博士是宇都宮大學的生物科學教授，被廣泛認為是日本烏鴉領域的權威。他的公司 CrowLab 開發了一種可以放置在垃圾旁邊的設備，利用傳感器檢測烏鴉的接近。該設備隨後播放烏鴉用來警告彼此附近有危險（如貓、鷹甚至人類）的叫聲錄音。\n 築原估計，他在能夠分離出作為警告的叫聲之前，記錄了 10,000 個烏鴉的叫聲。\n 該設備於 2023 年在東京北部的宇都宮市進行了測試，並迅速證明有效。根據 CrowLab 的説法，農民、高爾夫球場經營者、太陽能電廠公司和倉庫經營者現在正在租用該設備。\n 福岡縣一座神社的管理方也證實，其周圍的森林不再是烏鴉的巢穴。\n 肖特表示，烏鴉數量的減少也對大城市中其他鳥類物種產生了積極影響。\n“這對生物多樣性是有益的，因為星鴉（屍鴉）擁有強大的喙，專門用來撕扯死動物的肉，但它們對東京的麻雀種羣造成了巨大損害，” 他説。\n“它們會襲擊巢穴，我自己見過它們整隻吞下幼雀。”</p>

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<p>東京通過一項為期 25 年的活動成功將烏鴉數量減少了超過 80%，該活動專注於改善垃圾管理和社區合作。關於烏鴉的投訴顯著減少，從數千件降至 2024 年的僅 293 件。措施包括建立安全的垃圾站和使用技術來驅趕烏鴉。由塚原直樹博士開發的一種設備能夠發出警告聲以嚇跑烏鴉，在各種環境中都證明了其有效性。烏鴉數量的減少也對城市中其他鳥類物種產生了積極影響，增強了城市的生物多樣性</p>

<p>For years, Tokyo residents woke to the sound of crows ripping open rubbish bags, the city’s backstreets strewn with the remains of last night’s dinners. Today those scenes have mostly disappeared, thanks to a 25-year campaign to curb the crow population.\nA survey conducted in December showed the number of crows in Japan’s capital had fallen to less than 20 per cent of its early-2000s peak.\nCity officials and bird experts say the success stems from a mix of civic discipline, careful waste management and a willingness among residents to change their everyday habits.\nIn the 1990s, soaring numbers of the winged scavengers turned Tokyo’s alleys into feeding grounds.\nDrawn to plastic garbage sacks left outside restaurants overnight, the crows learned to rip them open and feast before morning collection. Residents quickly tired of the mess and the menace.\nThe large, intelligent birds also became increasingly aggressive during breeding season, swooping at passers-by and raiding the nests of smaller species.\nParks where the crows roosted were coated in droppings, while the birds’ taste for bright wires and shiny parts led to power outages and damaged fibre-optic cables.\n\nBy 2001, researchers counted a record 18,658 crows at Tokyo’s three main roosting sites: Meiji Jingu shrine, Toshimagaoka Cemetery and the National Museum of Nature and Science. Complaints to the metropolitan government reached into the thousands.\nThat picture has now changed dramatically. In 2024, just 293 complaints were filed, fewer than one-tenth the number at the start of the century.\nKevin Short, a naturalist and former professor of cultural anthropology at Tokyo University of Information Sciences, said the drop in numbers was even noticeable in neighbouring Chiba prefecture, where he lives.\nOfficials employed a variety of measures to counter the crows, from trapping and nest removal to poisoned bait. But Short said it was a simpler measure that ultimately proved most effective.\n“It is simply a matter of better control of garbage and restaurants and other businesses across Tokyo now no longer dump bags on the street at the end of the day,” he told This Week in Asia.\nThe city built communal rubbish stations secured with heavy metal lids, while subtle social pressure ensured public compliance, Short said.\n“And if there is no food for them in the cities, then the crows have gone back to the mountains or the coastal areas that they originally inhabited.”\nOther cities have also taken steps to rein in the crow menace. In December 2010, the city of Minoh, on the outskirts of Osaka, passed a local ordinance that prohibited residents from leaving food out for crows, with a fine of up to 100,000 yen (US$633) for anyone caught feeding the pests or refusing officials access to their gardens to make sure they are following the law.\n\nA Japanese scientist has further turned the tables on the crow population, devoting 20 years of research to recording and deciphering crows’ calls and developing a device that projects warning cries to scare the creatures away.\nDr Naoki Tsukahara is a professor of biosciences at Utsunomiya University who is widely regarded as Japan’s foremost authority on crows. His company, CrowLab, has created a device that can be placed alongside rubbish and uses a sensor to detect when a crow is approaching. The device then plays a recording of a cry that the birds use to warn each other that danger – a cat, hawk or even a human – is nearby.\nTsukahara estimated that he recorded 10,000 crow calls before he was able to isolate those that served as warnings.\nThe equipment was tested in 2023 in Utsunomiya, a city north of Tokyo, and has quickly proved to be effective. Farmers, golf course operators, solar plant firms and warehouse operators are now leasing the equipment, according to CrowLab.\nThe management of a shrine in Fukuoka prefecture has also testified that its surrounding forest was no longer a nesting place for crows.\nShort said the absence of large numbers of crows was also proving to be beneficial to other bird species in big cities.\n“It is good for biodiversity as the hoshi boso crow [carrion crow] has a powerful bill that is designed to tear the meat off dead animals in its normal mountain environment, but they caused huge damage to the sparrow population of Tokyo,” he said.\n“They would raid nests and I myself have seen them swallow a fledgling sparrow whole.”\n</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>多年來，東京居民早晨醒來時常聽到烏鴉撕扯垃圾袋的聲音，城市的后街上滿是昨晚晚餐的殘骸。如今，這些場景大多消失了，這要歸功於一項持續 25 年的減少烏鴉數量的運動。\n12 月進行的一項調查顯示，東京的烏鴉數量已降至 2000 年代初峯值的不到 20%。\n 城市官員和鳥類專家表示，這一成功源於市民的自律、細緻的垃圾管理以及居民願意改變日常習慣的態度。\n 在 1990 年代，數量激增的烏鴉將東京的巷子變成了覓食場所。\n 它們被夜間留在餐館外的塑料垃圾袋吸引，學會了撕開垃圾袋，在早晨收集之前大快朵頤。居民們很快對這種混亂和威脅感到厭倦。\n 這些大型、聰明的鳥類在繁殖季節變得越來越具攻擊性，向路人俯衝並襲擊小鳥的巢穴。\n 烏鴉棲息的公園被鳥糞覆蓋，而它們對亮色電線和閃亮部件的偏好導致了停電和光纖電纜損壞。\n\n 到 2001 年，研究人員在東京的三個主要棲息地：明治神宮、豐島岡公墓和國立自然科學博物館，記錄到創紀錄的 18,658 只烏鴉。向市政府的投訴數量達到了數千件。\n 如今，這一情況發生了戲劇性的變化。到 2024 年，僅有 293 起投訴，數量不到本世紀初的十分之一。\n 自然主義者、東京信息大學前文化人類學教授凱文·肖特表示，烏鴉數量的下降在他居住的鄰近千葉縣也有所體現。\n 官員們採取了多種措施來對付烏鴉，從捕捉和移除巢穴到使用毒餌。但肖特表示，最終證明最有效的措施是更簡單的辦法。\n“這只是更好地控制垃圾的問題，現在東京的餐館和其他企業在一天結束時不再將垃圾袋扔在街上，” 他在《亞洲週刊》中説道。\n 城市建立了配有重金屬蓋的公共垃圾站，而微妙的社會壓力確保了公眾的遵守，肖特説。\n“如果城市裏沒有食物，那麼烏鴉就會回到它們最初棲息的山區或沿海地區。”\n 其他城市也採取了措施來遏制烏鴉的威脅。2010 年 12 月，大阪郊區的箕面市通過了一項地方條例，禁止居民將食物留給烏鴉，任何被抓到餵食害鳥或拒絕官員進入其花園以確保遵守法律的人將面臨最高 100,000 日元（約合 633 美元）的罰款。\n\n 一位日本科學家進一步改變了烏鴉的數量，花費 20 年時間記錄和解讀烏鴉的叫聲，並開發出一種設備，可以發出警告聲來嚇跑這些生物。\n 築原直樹博士是宇都宮大學的生物科學教授，被廣泛認為是日本烏鴉領域的權威。他的公司 CrowLab 開發了一種可以放置在垃圾旁邊的設備，利用傳感器檢測烏鴉的接近。該設備隨後播放烏鴉用來警告彼此附近有危險（如貓、鷹甚至人類）的叫聲錄音。\n 築原估計，他在能夠分離出作為警告的叫聲之前，記錄了 10,000 個烏鴉的叫聲。\n 該設備於 2023 年在東京北部的宇都宮市進行了測試，並迅速證明有效。根據 CrowLab 的説法，農民、高爾夫球場經營者、太陽能電廠公司和倉庫經營者現在正在租用該設備。\n 福岡縣一座神社的管理方也證實，其周圍的森林不再是烏鴉的巢穴。\n 肖特表示，烏鴉數量的減少也對大城市中其他鳥類物種產生了積極影響。\n“這對生物多樣性是有益的，因為星鴉（屍鴉）擁有強大的喙，專門用來撕扯死動物的肉，但它們對東京的麻雀種羣造成了巨大損害，” 他説。\n“它們會襲擊巢穴，我自己見過它們整隻吞下幼雀。”</p>
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日本首都如何通過一個 ‘簡單’ 的解決方案來遏制烏鴉的混亂