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Crow shooting to resume in Singapore as attacks swell
Crow shooting operations were discontinued in 2020 after shotgun pellets struck nearby homes.
A crow in a bird trap in Toa Payoh on May 25, 2023. (Photo: CNA/Javier Lim)
Emil Chan
23 Feb 2026 05:00PM (Updated: 23 Feb 2026 05:11PM)
SINGAPORE: The National Parks Board (NParks) will resume crow shooting operations from the second half of March, Minister for National Development Chee Hong Tat said on Monday (Feb 23), following discussions with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF).
Crow shooting operations were discontinued in 2020 following incidents in which pellets, from shotguns wielded by auxiliary police officers, struck nearby homes.
Since then, however, other measures to manage the crow population - including the trapping and removal of crows, the removal of crow nests, and stepped-up efforts to reduce human sources of food - have proven inadequate on their own, said Mr Chee.
“In 2025 alone, the Municipal Services Office received about 15,000 crow-related feedback, three times more than in 2020,” he said, adding that reports of crow attacks have also increased by fourfold to more than 2,000 cases over the same period.
“If the crow population continues to grow, it will affect the safety of our residents, as there will be more and more crow-related attacks.
“I have therefore asked NParks to bring back shooting as one of the measures to reduce the crow population in Singapore.”
Mr Chee said the crow shooting operations will carry some risk as shotguns will be used.
Shooters will be required to adhere to strict safety controls, such as only shooting upwards, cordoning off shooting zones with clear signage and ensuring sufficient safety personnel to prevent unauthorised access during the shooting operations.
The crow shooting operations will be carried out by licensed wildlife management contractors who are certified in the handling of firearms, said NParks.
“Together with the other ongoing measures such as trapping and nest removal, I hope that the resumption of shooting can help to bring down the crow population in different parts of Singapore, and provide a safer environment for our residents,” said Mr Chee.
NParks said on Monday it removed close to 9,000 crow nests islandwide in 2025, up from over 600 in 2021. The number of crows trapped and removed also rose from more than 1,800 in 2021 to over 13,000 in 2025.
In the past, volunteer shooters from the Singapore Gun Club helped to cull crows. However, the programme ended in the early 2010s after crow shooting licences were not renewed, former volunteers told CNA.
At one point, the authorities also enlisted the services of Certis CISCO to cull crows, but the practice was stopped after an auxiliary police officer was jailed for killing crows with a shotgun and without a safety officer present.
House crows, known by the scientific name Corvus splendens, are not native to Singapore and are an invasive species that poses a threat to local biodiversity, said NParks.
Easily able to adapt to urban surroundings, they are particularly protective of their young and may attack when they sense that their young are threatened.
In 2023, a series of crow attacks in Bishan and Toa Payoh prompted NParks to conduct crow trapping and nest removals in the area.
However, some crow-trapping operations were met with opposition by hecklers, who accused NParks of animal cruelty.
Last month, a 77-year-old man was fined S$500 after he cut the cable ties securing an NParks bird trap in Toa Payoh in October 2025.
