Crows are intelligent birds and learn quickly – even from each other.

[1sauerlaender@pixelfed.social]

Crows are intelligent birds and learn quickly – even from each other.
In Sweden, they are used to collect cigarette butts and bring them to a machine that automatically rewards them with peanuts.

[uint8_t@chaos.social]

@1Sauerlaender in the age of ai slop I found this hard to believe so I did a bit of digging and I’m happy to report back that this seems to be true!! the startup is called Corvid Cleaning AB

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/25166042241296275

[sista_ray@bildung.social]

@uint8_t @1Sauerlaender

Sadly the startup closed down and the picture of the machine is not real (the actual prototype can be seen in your link)

https://www.heise.de/news/Schwedisches-Start-up-hinter-Kippenstummel-sammelnden-Kraehen-meldet-Insolvenz-an-11094091.html

[sassdawe@infosec.exchange]

@sista_ray @uint8_t @1Sauerlaender let me guess this was extremely toxic for the birds and eventually the humans realized maybe this wasn't their best idea?

[vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de]

@sassdawe @sista_ray @uint8_t @1Sauerlaender

>Ein Dozent für Ethologie an der Universität Stockholm warnte davor, dass die Krähen Nikotin aufnehmen könnten. Da die Art auf der Roten Liste gefährdeter Arten steht, könnte dies als Tierquälerei eingestuft werden.

indeed, an ethics professor warned this was likely exposing the crows to nicotine and could be considered animal cruelty (and crows are on the redlist of threatened species which surprised me to learn - I thought they were fairly common birds!)

[rndanger@infosec.exchange]

@vfrmedia @sassdawe @sista_ray @uint8_t @1Sauerlaender
And if these machines are used in an area I'm smoking in, aren't i depriving the birds of food by taking care of my own waste now? 🙃

[rndanger@infosec.exchange]

@vfrmedia @sassdawe @sista_ray @uint8_t @1Sauerlaender
Do you want an army of nicotine dependant machine hacking corvids? Because that's how you get an army of nicotine dependant machine hacking corvids.