this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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Animals with Jobs

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This week, the Puy du Fou theme park in western France put some new employees in the field: six trained rooks, members of the crow family, picking up small pieces of paper and cigarette butts in exchange for food.

The Puy du Fou trash collection system is similar to Klein's "vending machine," rewarding birds with food for picking up certain items off the ground. It uses two different sections of a wooden box, one to receive trash and the other to offer up food.

"The park is very clean," Puy du Fou President Nicolas de Villiers tells NPR by phone. "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.' "

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[–] Dagnet@lemmy.world 33 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Crows are so smart I bet those fuckers gonna start grabbing trash from a bin and dropping in there for more treats haha

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 years ago

When I heard this story (maybe a similar experiment) that's what they were doing. They were also ripping up existing trash for more points

[–] TheLordHumungus@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Ahh don't give em ideas

[–] theodewere@kbin.social 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

so this is just another trashy theme park murder story

[–] Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] Alteon@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Are you rewarding me for picking up the trash Monsieur Theme Park? I demand equal pay as the crows! I demand seed to eat!

[–] RandomStickman@kbin.social 10 points 2 years ago

calling rooks crows

Here's the thing...

[–] Skates@feddit.nl 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

And yet French theme park employees are upset with me when I push them off a cliff asking "crows can fly, why can't you"??

[–] bev@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

This is a tried and failed strategy. We had got it for a reading in evolutionary bio.