City birds use cigarette butts to smoke out parasites

Lining nests with material from discarded cigarettes may help keep out parasitic mites.

Stuffing cigarette butts into the lining of nests may seem unwholesome. But a team of ecologists says that far from being unnatural, the use of smoked cigarettes by city birds may be an urban variation of an ancient adaptation.


More at Nature http://www.nature.com/news/city-birds-use-cigarette-butts-to-smoke-out-parasites-1.11952