How will Singapore’s crow shooting operations be conducted to ensure public safety?

SINGAPORE – The sound of crows cawing could be heard before a flight of about 20 of them were seen flying over a heavy vehicle carpark in Jurong on the afternoon of April 2. 

The birds had likely been attracted to the area by a machine used by wildlife contractors to mimic crows in distress.

As they circled overhead, one man stood in a small, squarish box demarcated by four safety cones in a larger area cordoned off by red-and-white tape. 

After checking that the area around him was clear, the shooter aimed his gun towards the sky.

Several gunshots later, the cawing of crows ceased and some feathered creatures dropped with a thud into the cordoned-off zone.

The rest of the birds quickly dispersed. 

This glimpse into a 25-minute crow shooting operation was organised for the media by the National Parks Board (NParks). 

The gun used in the operations is longer than the length of a man’s arm, and each pellet is about the size of a grain of rice. 

After the shooting operation, checks were done by spotters in the area to see if the crows on the ground were still moving. Any crow still moving was retrieved and “put down humanely” on the spot, said Mr Soh Ze Bin, NParks’ director for wildlife management and outreach. 

The carcasses were disposed of in a biohazard bag and transported to an approved waste management plant to be incinerated.

Such operations began in Yishun in late March, and will be expanded to eight other districts over the next few weeks. The other areas are: Bishan, Jurong, Kranji, Punggol, Sembawang, Tampines, Toa Payoh and Woodlands. 

These areas were identified based on a range of factors, such as the presence of a large number of crows, site suitability for conducting crow shooting safely, and crow aversion to traps in the area, said NParks in an update on April 2.

The operation on April 2 saw 16 crows shot. This brings the total number of crows shot since the start of the operations in Yishun on March 24 to 40.

“NParks will continue to study more sites and expand the roll-out of crow shooting operations over time,” said the board in its statement. 

Elaborating on how crow aversion to traps in an area affects the decision to shoot them instead, Mr Soh said these birds are very adaptable and are known to avoid the traps after a while.

There is also a limit to how many traps can be set up.

NParks said the progressive implementation of shooting operations allows it to refine safety protocols and fine-tune risk mitigation measures before scaling up operations.

It added that it had worked with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Singapore Police Force to review safety protocols. 

For a start, safety protocols include informing the public early about the location and timing of the operation, cordoning off the shooting zone, and always directing the trajectory of the shotgun upwards. 

During the demonstration, Mr Soh reiterated that strict shooting protocols are in place to ensure public safety during the shooting operations. 

“In urban Singapore, you have built-up areas, people walking past, vehicles driving past almost everywhere,” he noted. “So we have to do this safely, also to let the public know that their safety is our paramount concern, before we do crow shooting.”

During the demonstration on April 2, the shooter – a wildlife management contractor engaged by NParks – was standing in the middle of a cordoned-off zone. There was about a 50m buffer between him and the cordon line in front of him and to the sides. The rear cordon is about 20m behind him. 

NParks said the size of this zone may change depending on the characteristics of the site. 

House crows (Corvus splendens) are an invasive species that pose a threat to native biodiversity and can attack humans, especially when people are perceived as threats to their young. 

Droppings from the birds where they gather and roost also create unsanitary conditions.

The resumption of crow shooting operations in Singapore after a six-year hiatus was announced by National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat on Feb 23.

He said at the time that the decision was made to resume shooting because alternative population control methods were inadequate amid a rise in reports about crow attacks. 

Other measures to control the country’s crow population include removing nests, deploying traps and pruning trees to reduce the number of birds that roost there.

“Crow shooting is an existing measure that is going to augment our suite of measures that are currently being deployed,” said Mr Soh.

“It’s not going to be the one silver bullet that’s going to solve the problem, but we think that having more options on hand is going to enable us to address this crow issue that Singapore is facing.”

Asked how crows pose a threat to local biodiversity, Mr Soh said while crows scavenge on mostly human food sources, they are also seen “harassing native biodiversity” such as raptors as well as poaching small native birds like the yellow-vented bulbul.

In 2025, complaints about crow attacks to the Municipal Services Office surged to over 2,000 cases, compared with more than 460 in 2020.

The Ministry of National Development – the parent ministry of NParks – had in 2020 discontinued the shooting of crows after incidents of pellets striking nearby residences. 

Such cases were caused by human error, including non-compliance with safety protocols, and enforcement action was taken against those involved.

NParks said that after crow shooting ceased in 2020, it intensified its other efforts to control the crow population, including trapping and removal of the birds and their nests. 

In 2025, NParks removed close to 9,000 crow nests islandwide, up from over 600 in 2021. The number of crows trapped and removed by NParks also rose from more than 1,800 in 2021 to over 13,000 in 2025.

Still, that did not help control the crow population. 

The Straits Times had earlier reported that the number of crows in Singapore grew by more than 20 times over less than a decade. 

Based on NParks’ population survey, the number of house crows was about 160,000 in 2024. In an earlier population study in 2016, there were about 7,200 on mainland Singapore. 

NParks said it conducts studies to understand the crows’ ecology, such as their roosting patterns and foraging movements, which inform its crow management efforts.

These include an ongoing study, which started in 2025, to track crow movements in Singapore using Bluetooth trackers. 

The trackers are strapped onto a crow’s back, and transmit a signal to receiving devices within range. Their location is then uploaded onto a data cloud. Over time, the data collected will provide further insights on their movement patterns and behaviour, NParks said.

The board added that the public can help to reduce the population growth of crows by not feeding them and by ensuring that food scraps are properly disposed of. 

NParks monitors feedback on illegal bird feeding and undertakes active enforcement, which includes physical surveillance and the deployment of CCTV cameras at identified feeding hot spots. 

Under the Wildlife Act, offenders can be fined up to $5,000 for their first offence of feeding any wild animal, including crows, and up to $10,000 for subsequent offences.