courtesy of MPCSD
A creative solution from up north for how to stop crows and geese from leaving droppings all over a school playground has left several residents in a dreadful fright.
The story comes from the city of Menlo Park in California, where a pair of “coyotes” are scarring these birds and the neighbors too. Local news outlet InMenlo reached out to a school district spokesman, who explained what all the fuss was about.
“There are coyote statues at Encinal and Laurel Lower Campus,” said spokesperson Parke Treadway.
“They were an idea that came from Encinal Principal Sharon Burns’ father, who lives in Canada. She was talking to him about Encinal’s population of Canadian geese on the field and the droppings they leave behind. He mentioned that in Canada they use fake coyotes in parks to deter geese (and relieve the goose poo issue).”
“Principal Burns thought it might work for crows, too, and it does! The coyotes have been a brilliant solution as other crow deterrents haven’t worked and [the school’s] custodial teams were constantly washing crow droppings off the lunch tables and surrounding ground. Now with the coyote statues our play areas are cleaner and water use is down.”
“Laurel School was facing a similar dilemma with its geese, so they also purchased two coyote statues which have been named Oak and Sequoia. The fact that the coyote statues deter both geese and crows is wonderful.”
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“Principal Linda Creighton of Laurel Lower Campus also reports that ‘We have had over a dozen worried passersby call to warn us about the ‘coyotes’ on campus and they all get a good chuckle and breathe a sigh of relief when they learn that they are just Oak and Sequoia, our coyote statues.’”
Coyotes have historically worked so well for this purpose, GNN reported that airports in Alaska have even employed robotic dogs “dressed” as coyotes to keep loitering birds off runways.
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