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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff, I'm Lauren vogel Bomb In. Today's episode is

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Speaker 1: a classic from our archives. This one involves an interesting

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Speaker 1: bit of research concerning birds and cigarette butts. It turns

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Speaker 1: out this litter can actually help city birds stay healthier

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Speaker 1: in some ways. Anyway, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogel Bomb.

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Speaker 1: Here the house sparrows and finches of Mexico City may

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Speaker 1: be proud to be called bird brains. And why not.

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Speaker 1: They figured out how to use one of the grossest

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Speaker 1: things on Earth, cigarette butts, to repel two of the

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Speaker 1: other grossest things on Earth, ticks and mites. MoMA birds

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Speaker 1: find their nests under constant and pervasive threat from these

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Speaker 1: blood sucking, feather feasting ectoparasites. Country birds have easy access

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Speaker 1: to nature's bountiful nest making materials, including certain insect repelling

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Speaker 1: herbs and plants. City dwelling birds, on the other hand,

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Speaker 1: face a concrete and steel urban landscape and curate their

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Speaker 1: nests from a more anthropogenic or man made palette enter

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Speaker 1: cigarette butts. A study published in twelve in the journal

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Speaker 1: Biology Letters details the ongoing investigation of an urban population

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Speaker 1: of breeding housefinches and house sparrows at the National University

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Speaker 1: of Mexico in Mexico City. The authors found that both

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Speaker 1: species interweaved anywhere from a few to a few dozen

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Speaker 1: smoked cigarette butts into their twiggy eclectic domiciles. In fact,

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Speaker 1: the study concluded the more butts, the healthier the nest.

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Speaker 1: Nicotine is an insecticide generated by the tobacco plant to

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Speaker 1: ward off invasive leaf eating arthropods like beetles. Some residual

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Speaker 1: nicotine remains in the fibers of cigarette butts that motherbirds

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Speaker 1: used to line and insulate their nests. It turns out

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Speaker 1: that this nicotine tinged filter fluff has medicinal and pesticidal

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Speaker 1: properties that repel tics, in particular protecting MoMA's chicks from

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Speaker 1: a potentially lethal fate. Overall, the study concludes that the

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Speaker 1: more cigarette filter fiber there is in the nest, the

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Speaker 1: fewer ticks and mites, revealing per sway of evidence that

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Speaker 1: parasites don't like cigarette butts and that nests built with

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Speaker 1: these butts attract fewer parasites. But there's no Avian surgeon general,

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Speaker 1: so who decides whether this seemingly beneficial cigarette habit harms

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Speaker 1: the birds or is a savvy and resourceful example of

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Speaker 1: urban wildlife adaptation. Researchers confirm that there is some genetic

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Speaker 1: damage linked to the activity, but they believe that the

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Speaker 1: positive life saving anti parasitic effects far outwagh any long

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Speaker 1: term negative consequences. So you've come a long way, Bertie's,

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Speaker 1: and you're helping clean up our cities while you're at it. Interestingly,

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Speaker 1: there's another way that birds may help combat cigarette butt litter.

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Speaker 1: A Dutch startup Crowded Cities is developing the Crowbar and

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Speaker 1: Autonomous training device to teach crows, some of the most

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Speaker 1: competent scavengers in the world, to deliver found cigarette butts

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Speaker 1: to a trash receptacle in exchange for food reward. Today's

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Speaker 1: episode is based on the article urban birds ousd Bugs

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Speaker 1: with Butts on houstu works dot com, written by Carrie Tatrow.

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Speaker 1: Green Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership

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Speaker 1: with how stuff Works dot Com, and it's produced by

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Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. Before more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the

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Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows.