Two schools in Menlo Park, Calif., have gotten extremely creative in their bid to stop crows and geese from leaving droppings on the school playground. A pair of coyote statues have been placed on the roof of Encinal School as a deterrent, but the realistic-looking statues are not only scaring the birds, they’re scaring residents as well. The idea for the statues came from the father of Principal Sharon Burns. When she mentioned the problem with crows to her father, he mentioned that in Canada where he lives they use fake coyotes in parks to deter the geese. Burns thought it might work for crows as well, and it turns out they do. The coyotes have been an excellent solution, eliminating the need for janitorial teams to constantly wash crow droppings off the lunch tables and surrounding playground. Laurel School was facing a similar dilemma with its geese, so they also purchased two coyote statues. Principal Linda Creighton reports that she, too, received calls from frightened residents. "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're just our coyote statues."
