On 25 Jan 2003 14:22:30 GMT, (IntarsiaCo) wrote:

Sometime in October 2002 Paghat claimed:
"If the West Nile encephalitis continues to eradicate crows, which are
particularly vulnerable to the virus & have already vanished entirely from
some infected east coast cities, a great many people who once complained
of these wonderful intelligent birds will be awfully sorry, remembering
their bold antics fondly."

The 103rd Christmas Bird Count clearly refutes your claim, in particular, there
are plenty of American Crows in DC. One must not believe EVERYTHING one reads,
a bit of COMMON SENSE is required to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Perhaps this dispute can be traced to the term "eradicate" which means
both to eliminate entirely AND to kill in large numbers. With brief
Googling, I see no alerts that crows have been entirely eliminated,
but several showing they are unusually susceptible to WNV and many
have died from it. Also a happy note that while any new virus may
claim many victims, immunity begins to build and the high mortality
numbers drop off.