by Maria Spiliopoulou

LARISSA, Greece, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Over the past two decades, Larissa, a city of some 170,000 inhabitants in central Greece, faced an invasion of thousands of crows mainly in the night hours that kept people awake with the noise and left behind acid droppings all over the main squares.

All this has changed in the past 18 months thanks to Haroula, a five-year old female Harris hawk which has been hired by the municipality to solve the problem.

Haroula, means Joy in Greek, came to the city of Larissa in autumn 2016 and started her night shifts in January 2017, after authorities had tried in vain several methods to drive away the flocks of birds, her handler Yorgos Christodoulou told Xinhua in a recent interview here.

IMPRESSIVE RESULTS

"Whatever we had tried, laser, pulsating light or ultrasounds and so on, was not effective," Christodoulou, a forester employed by the municipality with a 20 year experience in managing the wildlife, explained.

Introducing hawking to Larissa was his idea. Although natural predators like hawks and falcons are used across the world for decades in airports and other sites to tackle the birds' problem, locals were not used to the image of a hawk perched on the gloved hand of a man at the city's main square, next to kids riding bicycles.

"At first people were quite negative. They believed that also this project would fail to bring results. But it did work very well and now Haroula is so famous that she has become something like the city's mascot. Everybody knows her by her first name," Christodoulou said.

The results of her 4-5 hour patrol each evening across the city center have been impressive.

"From the very first days of our operations we recorded amazing results. Here in the squares of the center of Larissa some 5,000-7,000 crows were flocking. After almost one month of operations, the number of the birds who were reaching the city was smaller than 200-300," her handler explained, adding that now the number has further declined to 50-100 crows.

"Haroula's target during the night shifts of course is not to kill birds. Her goal is to scare them off, to create a climate of insecurity so they stay away," Christodoulou underlined.

In the past authorities encouraged the killing of birds to control their populations, but in recent years they ignored people as non threats, as they gradually ignored the lasers and other methods used to deter them.

Flying a hawk in the city center on a regular basis proved in comparison an environmental friendly, humane and most effective way to keep the city free of the crows and their waste droppings which carry many serious diseases.

TRAINING

Christodoulou underwent training with Haroula in the summer of 2016 after they first met at a hawk-breeding center in northern Greece. In Greece, the possession of a wild hawk is illegal. Birds of prey like his feathered colleague are used only when they come from breeding centers.

The female hawk had received basic training and was used to the contact with humans, city lights and sounds and obeying to simple whistle calls to fly away or return to the handler.

Haroula was further trained by Christodoulou on site to operate in the urban environment after sunset, since he noted that crows were panicking more by her presence once they had nestled for the night seeking warmth inside the city.

"It is the only project in the world dealing with crows during night time," Christodoulou noted.

"In big cities like London, Manchester or Paris hawks, in particular Harris hawks, are used to scare away or decrease the number of birds, mainly pigeons and sea gulls which fly during day time," he explained.

Larissa's hawk was trained to recognize between various birds, leave aside pigeons or sparrows and focus on crows only, as she recognizes her handler.

"We have reached a stage where Haroula can recognize me among thousands of people and flies to my hand regardless of the difficult conditions of the urban environment," Christodoulou said. He is after all the man who is taking care of her every day and night.

The working hours each evening depend on her mood, he added smiling. Haroula is on the job throughout the year, with the exception of rainy nights and when her handler is on vacation.

In about two months, another winged municipal employee will join the team. Artemis, another 5-year old Harris hawk, is currently trained by Christodoulou to start patrols in the sky of Larissa.