vellavu
Scooby
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These Birds Have Picked Up a Nasty Cigarette Habit to Fight Off Parasites
Like most animals adapted to urban living, the house finches in Mexico City make good use of what we humans commonly throw away.
The tiny Carpodacus mexicanus birds take cigarette butts back to their nests, a habit that researchers are now confident is to keep ticks at bay, even if the toxins have a rather nasty side-effect on the growing chicks.
A team of scientists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico followed up on a previous study conducted in 2012 that left them wondering if the finch's use of the cellulose fibres found in cigarette butts as nesting material was medicinal, or purely for warmth and structure.
The nicotine in tobacco that stimulates a buzz in smokers has a far more overpowering effect on smaller animals like insects and other arthropods, making it useful as a pesticide.
Like most animals adapted to urban living, the house finches in Mexico City make good use of what we humans commonly throw away.
The tiny Carpodacus mexicanus birds take cigarette butts back to their nests, a habit that researchers are now confident is to keep ticks at bay, even if the toxins have a rather nasty side-effect on the growing chicks.
A team of scientists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico followed up on a previous study conducted in 2012 that left them wondering if the finch's use of the cellulose fibres found in cigarette butts as nesting material was medicinal, or purely for warmth and structure.
The nicotine in tobacco that stimulates a buzz in smokers has a far more overpowering effect on smaller animals like insects and other arthropods, making it useful as a pesticide.