French Theme Park Employs Crows

French Theme Park Employs Crows

A French historical theme park, Puy du Fou, has trained six crows to pick up litter. The birds deposit the litter into a small box which then rewards them with some bird food.

Crows are part of the family Corvidae, a particular intelligent set of birds that includes crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers.

Others have trained crows to collect coins in return for peanuts, and there’s an infamous video of a Russian crow using a jar lid as toboggan, but this is the first time we’ve heard of them being employed as custodians!

The head of the theme park notes, however, that the point is not just to keep the area clean. It’s also about showing “that nature itself can teach us to take care of the environment”.

Read more about bird intelligence.

Read the BBC article.