It happens every year just about now. The weather gets warmer and the birds and the bees start making more birds and bees.
In the case of crows, however, that can result in some rather unpleasant clashes with humans.
They are only doing what thousands of years of evolutionary history has burned into their DNA, but it’s hard to appreciate that when you are being dive bombed by one of them.
The easy solution would be to avoid areas where they are nesting. But how are you to know where those high-risk zones are?
Langara College instructor Jim O’Leary had an idea. He created Crow Trax, or Crow Attack Tracker Application. Using GIS (Geographic Information System) he created a map that people can easily add new hot spots to – complete with the level of aggression showed by the crows and an explanation of exactly what happened.
“Anybody walking with a mobile phone, if they get attacked, can go quickly into the website and make a marker on the map, fill in a description of the attack, and the level of aggression between one and five,” said O’Leary.
If you don’t have a smartphone you can also use the map on a home computer.
It’s only been on the web for two days but already 80 attack locations have been added. It pleases O’Leary, who created it for fun, but hopes Crow Trax will also be useful in helping people and crows avoid conflict.
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