Helpful crows
Not picking up cigarette butts or litter, but dog biscuits!
Six years ago, an unusual initiative began in the city of Södertälje in Sweden. It was designed to cut down on litter and the expense of cleaning the streets. Christian Günther-Hanssen, the founder of Corvid Cleaning, believed that trained crows would reduce the litter of cigarette butts by about 75% in the city.
Cigarette butts take an incredible ten years to decay, releasing lead, nicotine and arsenic into the soil and water.
The crows quickly learnt that if they picked up cigarette butts and put them in a special machine, they would get a food treat in exchange. In a theme park, Puy du Fou, in France, the falcons in a falconry display, demonstrated how they had been trained to pick up items and take them to specific locations. Inspired by this, crows were trained to pick up cigarette butts and other litter in exchange for food treats.
If only we could train humans to stop dropping litter everywhere they went!
