Currently, the number of Hooded crows (Corvus cornix) in Slovenia has increased and with this trend elevated number of situations are perceived as a conflict. The purpose of our research was to provide a firm basis for the selection of actions for management of population of Hooded crows that would be acceptable by public. With online survey on opinions, acceptability of several actions, emotions trigerred by crows, and negative experiences with crows, we received 1045 responses. We carried out descriptive statistics, principal component analysis and calculation of effect sizes to reveal patterns. Most respondents are interested to learn more about problems with crows and they think we should reduce their number, but not by any mean. About one third of population has will to activelly participate in actions toward controle of crows population, but about one third will activelly opose such actions. The most acceptable action for management is “Persecution of crows at nesting time with use of domesticated birds of prey (falcony)”, which is however unreliable to be performed on a regular basis. The least acceptable action is shooting of nestlings. From the results we can conclude that the most suitable actions should be passive, i.e. by education of people how to avoid conflicts with crows, and by better management of garbage as a source of food for crows in cities/towns.
Recent increase in crows’ number in Slovenia demands a planned management and performance of appropriate measures for crows' regulation. To decide which appropriate measures should be carried out, public opinion and expectations should also be included in wildlife management. With the aim to help understanding peoples’ acceptability of measures for crows’ management, the data collected with an online survey was explored. Four models were made with Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to figure out what affects the Acceptability of specific measures: Measures for young crows (A-MYC), Shooting crows (A-ShC), Scaring crows (A-ScC) and All appropriate measures set by professionals (A-AM), respectively. From the survey, eleven items were selected to observe effects of four constructs: Attitude toward crows (ATC), Opinion about crows’ protection (OCP), Interest about crows and problematics (ICP), and Support of all appropriate measures set by professionals (SAAM). OCP has the highest effect on SAAM, but not also on the Acceptability of specific measures. Increasing SAAM does not always cause increasing Acceptability of specific measures. The highest effect of OCP is on A-ShC. More they would like to protect crows, less they accept shooting them. On the other hand, increase of the SAAM causes high increase of the A-ShC. Decreasing ICP causes decreasing A-MYC and A-ShC. Effect of each construct depends on specific measures and also on different groups (e. g. differences between/among gender, hunters, birdwatchers, people with negative experiences with crows, people who respect wildlife rights). To summarize, following factors affect the Acceptability of measures: specific species, consequences of measure performance on animal, severity of problems caused by species, human activity related with nature and species, knowledge about problematics, values about wildlife rights, benefits of species, and gender, respectively.