Modern Urban Birds And Cigarettes

[M Farooq]

As gardeners are nature lovers too- I wanted to share a recent study by St. Andrews University in Scotland about the birds and their relation to man made cigarettes. What they have found is that many birds used natural "aromatic" plants to repel mites and other insects in their nests. However the city birds have also learnt that cigarette is another natural poison. So they have started to use old cigarette butts left by smokers, and use the cellulose filters in them to line their nests!

What happens as result: The nicotine in the filters repels the mites, keeps the nest free of unwanted insects and the cellulose filters keep the nest warm too. That is really surprising! On average 10 cigarette butts were found in the nests studied in New Mexico. They concluded "This novel behaviour observed in urban birds fulfils one of the three conditions necessary to be regarded as self-medication: it is detrimental to parasites."

Regards,

Farooq