Scientists use birds to stop illegal dumping
25 July 2016 - 09:20
Birds have been used to carry messages and now can sound the alarm on illegal dumping.
Scientists in Spain attached solar-powered GPS trackers to seagulls and detected dumping by monitoring where the birds went on their scavenging flights."Our results suggest that multi-species guilds of feathered detectives could help fight illegal dumping at continental scales," the researchers said on Friday.Launching a campaign to combat illegal dumping last year, Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille said the R350-million spent annually on cleaning up could build 2000 houses.The team working in a protected biosphere in southern Spain attached GPS devices costing R15000 each to 19 seagulls and monitored them for six weeks.The birds flew up to 122km from their breeding colony and alerted researchers to recent dumping at a landfill site that had been closed 10 years earlier.The GPS transmitters should last several years, making gulls more efficient than drones...
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