For many years, the Unterhachinger nature conservationists have been campaigning for more sympathy for the rooks. They point out that these birds are intelligent and social, and that their krah-krah is more than just shouting. So far, however, all of these advertising messages have had little effect on residents with nests on their doorstep. Complaints about the crows are a long-running issue at town hall meetings, and letters of complaint are now also piling up in the town hall. Most recently, FDP municipal councilor Peter Hupfauer raised the issue at the municipal council meeting, spoke of a plague and proposed a change in the law as a solution. This could actually exist.
At the moment, the rooks are still strictly protected by the Federal Nature Conservation Act. Accordingly, it has been forbidden since 1980 to disturb, catch, injure or even kill wild animals. Also, their breeding sites or resting places must not be taken from nature, damaged or destroyed. Deterrence measures are possible outside the breeding season, but only if they have been approved by the authorities beforehand.
In Unterhaching, such deterrence measures were carried out in 2022 on Schmorellstrasse, Grünauer Allee, Goerdeler and Ottobrunner Strasse. In some cases, the municipality has already removed nests four to five times and was successful in deterring the birds in that breeding trees were abandoned. However, the crows from Unterhaching did not disappear as a result. They just breed elsewhere. The birds from Ottobrunner Strasse, for example, have now settled at the swimming pool. There, where it was only scared once or twice, they simply rebuilt their nests.
Curious and clever: the rook is strictly protected.
(Photo: Günther Reger)
Hupfauer expressed the impression that noise pollution from rooks had increased in Unterhaching. “The impression is deceptive. That is objectively not the case,” said City Hall spokesman Simon Hötzl, referring to the rook count and the final report of the deterrence. Accordingly, the number has even decreased slightly. There are still 292 nests in the municipal area, the year before there were twelve more. However, those who live near the swimming pool will doubt this, because that is where the main breeding area is. And while there has been peace on the southern edge of the local park since 2020 and on Jahnstrasse due to a tree falling after a storm, a new crow location with nine nests has emerged on Biberger Strasse. There are also 74 nests in the cemetery, where visitors are often annoyed by dirty tombstones. Hötzl said he fully understands anyone who feels disturbed by the crows. But due to the current legal situation, the municipality cannot do more.
But Hupfauer’s love of animal and nature conservation goes a bit too far when it becomes a plague for people. An initiative in the Bavarian state parliament shows that he is not the only one with the idea of changing the law. At the beginning of October, 22 MPs from the Free Voters and the CSU applied for the “downgrading of the protection status of the rook”. Because they think that the animals are no longer as worthy of protection as they were before and point to the increasing populations. They are reportedly doubling every four years. With 1000 breeding pairs, individual colonies have reached a size that inevitably leads to conflicts, according to the application. The rooks are already causing increasing damage to agriculture every year.
The European Birds Directive gives the member states the option of hunting bird species based on their population size, their geographical distribution and their ability to reproduce within the framework of national legislation. However, this initiative is still nothing more than a request to the state government to support it by means of a Federal Council initiative.