Man vs. Wild – AU-edition
Stefan Boldsen Hansen, team leader of AU’s Parks and Gardens Section, donned hearing protection and a silenced rifle in the early hours to free the human inhabitants of the University Park from the harmful cries of rooks. And yes, just like Bear Grylls in Man vs. Wild, he both whacks and eats the juvenile rooks.
On a (way too) early Wednesday morning, Omnibus meets Stefan Boldsen Hansen, team leader of AU’s Parks and Gardens Section, as he casts a glance up into the treetops of the towering oaks above the amphitheatre in University Park.
A rook colony has settled here in the early spring.
The rooks and their young reside right across from Parkollegium 2 and 3, where the residents now no longer need to set the alarm clock. The rooks make sure the residents live like rockstars – staying up late and waking up early.
The rooks' noise is a great nuisance to the residents of Parkkollegierne. So much so, that it’s considered harmful to people’s health. But the rook is protected in Denmark, which is why it has required a permit from the Danish Nature Agency to be allowed to regulate the population of rooks in the park. The agency has granted that permission. However, it is only the young rooks in the treetops that are being targeted. Adult rooks are never subject to regulation because of their protected status, Stefan Boldsen Hansen explains.
If you spot a man wearing full Fjällräven gear, carrying a rifle and earmuffs during your early morning run (just to show off on Strava), there’s no need to panic. It's just Stefan Boldsen Hansen, who is team leader of AU's Parks and Gardens Section, and who has been given the task of regulating the young rooks. And yes, to regulate is the fine word for whack.
"You use a silencer. Not a James Bond-style silencer, but it doesn’t make a huge bang either," he says.
"Like this," he says, clapping his hands firmly.
A perfect location for rooks
According to team leader and rook hunter Stefan Boldsen Hansen, the rooks have hit the jackpot in relation to the location of their colony.
"The University Park is a perfect place for rooks. It’s full of tall, canopy trees and lots of caterpillars, beetles and worms they can eat," Stefan Boldsen Hansen says.
At the time of writing, there is approximately a 12-month wait for a room at Parkkollegierne. Maybe the rooks have found a loophole?
The park may be perfect for rooks, but for the human residents, the rooks are the neighbour from hell.
"Noise from rooks can simply cause illness and stress in humans," says Stefan Boldsen Hansen, who has been doing his part throughout May to make inroads into the colony.
"17 rook chicks have been shot, and there were 25 nests when we started," he says.
“You usually expect three chicks per nest, so some of the nests have had no chicks,” Stefan Boldsen Hansen says.
Regulating the rook population is not a new phenomenon. Stefan Boldsen Hansen says that each year, approximately 1,000 rook chicks are regulated in Aarhus Municipality.
Whack and eat
What happens to the rook chicks from the University Park, you might think.
"They taste fantastic," Stefan Boldsen Hansen says.
He eats them. However, it takes many to make a full meal, as the breast of a rook chick is relatively small.
This Wednesday morning, however, there are no cartridges in the rifle.
"As I said, 17 rook chicks have been regulated, and the adults are unhurt," Stefan Boldsen Hansen says.
"It’s probably enough stress that we are talking down here," he says.
Whether it gives the residents of the University Park’s student halls carte blanche to throw garden parties under the guise of rook control is open to interpretation.
Stefan Boldsen Hansen will soon again have to visit a supermarket to get his dinner, as the rook regulation ends on 15 June.
But until then, the residents of the student halls will have to keep their balcony doors closed and hope the rooks get stressed before they do.
This text is machine translated and post-edited by Cecillia Jensen.
