A Theme Park Trained Birds To Clean Up Trash

August 21, 2018

A theme park in France is set to deploy six intelligent birds to pick up trash in exchange for food.

Credit: Puy du Fou

Corvids, the family of birds that includes crows and ravens, are incredibly intelligent creatures. They have been known use tools, solve complex puzzles and plan for the future.

Boubou, Bamboo, Bill, Black, Bricole and Baco officially started their new gigs on Monday.

The birds will "work" four days a week under the close watch of a falconer, who will make sure that people don’t toss garbage onto the ground just to watch the birds pick it up.

According to Puy du Fou president Nicolas de Villiers, the purpose of the project isn’t just to keep the park clean.

"The purpose of the crows is to educate the people, to open their minds, to think, 'OK, the birds are able to do something that we are much more able to do than them, so we should do this by ourselves'," Villiers said.

He says it is also about showing "that nature itself can teach us to take care of the environment."