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Rooks trained to pick up cigarette butts
Six specially-trained rooks have been picking up cigarette butts at the Puy du Fou theme park in the Vendée.
Park president Nicolas de Villiers said the idea came from one of their falconers, Christophe Gaborit, because the birds are intelligent and “given a conducive environment, like to communicate with humans and establish a playful relationship”.
Mr Gaborit invented a box which delivers a crunchy snack when the rook places a butt inside. “The birds are very fast, they can fill a bucket in less than three-quarters of an hour,” he told France Info.
