Sure, everyone has heard about phone company workers blowing a hole in water pipes or gas company guys slicing through fiber optic cables. But people in Tokyo are facing a new kind of a problem that is preventing Tokyoites from getting their broadband fix. Crows! Yup, that’s right crows. The Economist reports that a large number of jungle crows – aggressive is how the British magazine describes them – like to make their nests using fiber optic broadband cables. They are simply pecking the junction boxes, and dislodging the cables and making off with the fiber.

The crows’ rising boldness must be a disappointment to Shintaro Ishihara, Tokyo’s governor, who declared war on the birds some five years ago, but has watched their numbers more than quadruple since. Even if the crows are somehow dissuaded from their destruction, the attacks on broadband access are expected to continue. Cicadas have discovered that fibre-optic cable is the ideal place to lay eggs, and have been staking out breeding grounds on the telegraph poles. [Economist Tokyo Newsletter]

Hat Tip, Dave