
City birds use cigarette butts to smoke out parasites - iamwil
http://www.nature.com/news/city-birds-use-cigarette-butts-to-smoke-out-parasites-1.11952
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stephenhuey
Lest tobacco manufacturers try to trumpet how compounds in cigarettes help
protect urban bird nests from parasites, Suárez-Rodríguez warned at the very
end of the article that carcinogens and pesticides in the butts may have
negative effects on the birds which we don't yet know about.

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rosser
Apologies: downvoted, when I meant to upvote. Can someone please remedy that?

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sliverstorm
Ok, I downvoted you, karma balance restored, or "remedied" as you call it. ;)

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sliverstorm
Tough crowd today.

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ztravis
I'm amazed at what is being claimed in the headline/description in this
article versus what the paper actually has demonstrated (from the brief
description in the article/reading the abstract online) - I actually wondered
whether the original poster was intending to highlight this disparity. First,
the conclusion of the researchers is that having more cigarette butts in a
nest correlates with having fewer parasitic mites, but this article states
that chemicals in cigarette butts are already known to repel mites. Wouldn't
one expect a correlation here? Of course, it's by no means a given, and
experiment is required to bear out this conclusion, but it seems like nobody
should come away surprised. Second, a correlation here is completely
independent from the conclusion that "city birds use cigarette butts" as
anything beyond building material! It leaves open this possibility but as far
as I can tell the question of intent is entirely unaddressed by the current
research. I already know not to expect more from pop-sci research highlights,
but I would have though Nature would do better.

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bcoates
It's kind of surprising that a used cigarette butt (as opposed to, say,
unburned tobacco) holds enough nicotine to act as an effective anti-parasite
material for a nest. It's at least a non-obvious result.

The article linked to another nature article about birds selectively choosing
herbs that repel parasites to line nests, and using scent to know when to
refresh them.

Given that cigarette butts are effective and that birds are known to pick nest
material carefully, the conclusion that birds are introducing them
intentionally isn't unreasonable.

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kragen
It might not be the nicotine, but the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
produced by burning, which are broad-spectrum venoms.

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gus_massa
Nicotine was used as a insecticide: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine>

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kragen
Oh, I'm well aware that nicotine is an insecticide. But it's present in very
small quantities in tobacco smoke, compared to the PCAHs.

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sk5t
Not too surprising, as both smoke, and many different herbs, are natural pest
repellents. Bay leaves, lavender, thyme, etc., might do a good job here too,
but of course cannot compete with the availability of pre-shredded tobacco
bits in the city.

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draq
The true victims of high taxes on cigarettes.

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ayuvar
This reminds me of the bird habit of "anting" which consists of a bird
applying ants (often with the intent of taking advantage of their formic acid)
to their plumage to help eliminate parasites.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anting_(bird_activity)>

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mtgx
Great, now birds will get cancer, too.

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dmritard96
I am sure they do already, they breath, eat and drink from the same planet as
us.

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pavel_lishin
I imagine that most birds, especially those in the city, don't live long
enough for cancer to be a significant cause of death.

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positr0n
I imagine if your diet consists of things like "french fries sitting in a
puddle of antifreeze and oil leakage from the side of the road" you could get
cancer quite quickly :-)

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jbrooksuk
I'm not really convinced that's the cause of cancer...

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mchanson
My aunt used to eat antifreeze and motor oil with her french fries and she
lived to 103.

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CountHackulus
New excuse for not quitting smoking, it's good for the environment.

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nakedrobot2
fast forward a thousand years.... sentient rats using human remains to build
new commnunication networks....

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olaf
Our underestimated neighbours :-)

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jbrooksuk
Animal Farm anybody?

