Bird Genocide: How Nature Took Revenge on the Chinese for the Extermination of Sparrows

Mao Zedong’s sparrow extermination campaign in the 1950s backfired tragically in China. This ambitious attempt to improve agricultural performance led to an unexpected ecological imbalance. A sharp increase in the number of insects that sparrows usually ate had a catastrophic effect on crop yields. This chain reaction led to a terrible famine that claimed millions of lives. This example clearly demonstrates how the unintended consequences of human intervention in nature can lead to irreversible and tragic results.

On February 12, 1958, Chinese leader Mao Zedong signed a historic decree to exterminate all rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows in the country. The idea to launch a large-scale campaign, which became part of the political program "Great Leap Forward", was born on February 18, 1957, at the next congress of the Communist Party of China. Its initiator was, oddly enough, biologist Zhou Jian, who was the country's deputy minister of education at the time.

He was convinced that the mass extermination of sparrows and rats would lead to an unprecedented flourishing of agriculture. He said that the Chinese could not overcome hunger because they were "eaten right in the fields by voracious sparrows." Zhou Jian convinced the party members that Frederick the Great had allegedly conducted a similar campaign in his time and that its results were very inspiring.

Mao Zedong didn't need much convincing. He spent his childhood in the village and knew first-hand about the eternal confrontation between peasants and saboteurs.

He happily signed the decree, and soon all over the country the Chinese, with slogans like “Long live the great Mao,” rushed to destroy the small representatives of the fauna designated in the decree of their leader.

Things didn't go well with flies, mosquitoes and rats right away. Rats, adapted to survive in any conditions, even a nuclear winter, didn't want to be completely exterminated. Flies and mosquitoes didn't seem to notice the war declared on them. Sparrows became the scapegoats.

At first, they tried to poison the birds and catch them with snares. But such methods turned out to be ineffective. Then they decided to "starve" the sparrows. Upon seeing the birds, any Chinese tried to scare them, forcing them to stay in the air as long as possible.

Old people, schoolchildren, children, men, women from morning till night waved rags, banged on pots, screamed, whistled, forcing the maddened birds to flutter from one Chinese to another. The method proved effective. The sparrows simply could not stay in the air for more than 15 minutes. Exhausted, they fell to the ground, after which they were finished off and piled into huge heaps.

It is clear that not only sparrows but all small birds in general were attacked. In order to inspire the already enthusiastic Chinese, photographs of multi-meter mountains of bird corpses were regularly published in the press. It was common practice to take schoolchildren out of class, give them slingshots and send them to shoot any small birds and destroy their nests. Particularly distinguished schoolchildren were given certificates.

In the first three days of the campaign alone, almost a million birds were destroyed in Beijing and Shanghai. And in almost a year of such active actions, two billion sparrows and other small birds were lost. The Chinese rejoiced, celebrated the victory. By that time, no one remembered the rats, flies and mosquitoes. They were given up on, since it is extremely difficult to fight them.

It turned out to be much more fun to destroy sparrows. There were no particular opponents of this campaign, either among scientists or ecologists. This is understandable: protest and objections, even the most timid, would have been perceived as anti-party behavior.

By the end of 1958, there were practically no birds left in China. Television announcers talked about this as an incredible achievement of the country. The Chinese were choking with pride. No one even doubted the correctness of the party's actions or their own.

In 1959, "wingless" China had an unprecedented harvest. Even the skeptics, if there were any, were forced to admit that the anti-sparrow measures had brought positive results. Of course, everyone noticed that all sorts of caterpillars, locusts, aphids and other pests had noticeably increased, but considering the volume of the harvest, all this seemed like insignificant costs.

The Chinese were able to fully assess these costs a year later. In 1960, agricultural pests had multiplied to such an extent that it was difficult to see and understand what kind of agricultural crop they were devouring at the moment. The Chinese were confused. Now entire schools and factories were again taken off work and study - this time in order to collect caterpillars. But all these measures were absolutely useless. The insects, not being controlled in any way by natural means (which was exactly what small birds used to do), multiplied at a terrifying rate. They quickly devoured the entire harvest and began to destroy the forests. Locusts and caterpillars feasted, and famine began in the country.

The Chinese were fed stories on TV that all these were temporary difficulties and that everything would soon be fine. But promises won't fill you up. The famine was serious - people were dying en masse. They ate leather items, the same locusts, and some even ate their fellow citizens. Panic began in the country.

The party members also panicked. According to the most conservative estimates, about 30 million people died from the famine that had befallen the country in China. Then the leadership finally remembered that all the troubles had started with the extermination of sparrows.

China turned to the Soviet Union and Canada for help — they asked to urgently send them birds. The Soviet and Canadian leaders were, of course, surprised, but they responded to the call. Sparrows were delivered to China in wagons. Now the birds began to feast — nowhere else in the world was there such a food supply as the incredible populations of insects that literally covered China. Since then, China has had a particularly reverent attitude towards sparrows.