Animals & nature · 2012
Did urban bird nests with more cigarette-butt material have fewer parasites?
Yes. In nests of two urban bird species, more material from cigarette filters was associated with fewer nest-dwelling parasites. In a separate heat-trap experiment, fewer parasites reached traps containing smoked cigarette butts than those containing unsmoked ones. This suggests a repellent effect, but does not prove that adding butts to a nest causes parasite numbers to fall.
Details
Some birds bring fresh plants into their nests whose airborne compounds repel parasites. This study examined whether cigarette butts incorporated into urban nests might serve a similar function.
Researchers found that nests containing more cigarette-filter material had fewer parasites. They also compared heat traps containing smoked and unsmoked cigarette butts: fewer parasites reached the traps with smoked butts. Together, the nest observations and trap experiment support the possibility that smoked butts repel nest-dwelling parasites.
The authors suggested nicotine as a possible explanation, but the abstract does not establish which compound caused the effect. The trap result also does not establish that butts improve birds’ health or are safe nesting material. Nor does the study show that birds deliberately choose butts to control parasites.
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