Is this a cigarette habit with some benefits? A species of urban bird seems to harness the toxic chemicals in cigarette butts in its fight against nest parasites – although there is a downside to the practice.

Constantino Macías Garcia at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and his colleagues, have spent several years studying the curious cigarette habit in urban house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus). Initial evidence hinted that nicotine and other chemicals in the butts might help deter insect pests from moving into the nests – nicotine – but it wasn’t conclusive.

To firm up the conclusion, Macías Garcia and his team experimented with 32 house finch nests. One day after the eggs in the nest had hatched, the researchers removed the natural nest lining and replaced it with artificial felt, to remove any parasites that might have moved in during brooding. They then added live ticks to 10 of the nests, dead ticks to another 10 and left 12 free of ticks.

They found that the adult finches were significantly more likely to add cigarette butt fibres to the nest if it contained ticks. What’s more, the weight of cigarette butt material added to nests containing live ticks was, on average, 40 per cent greater than the weight of cigarette butt material added to nests containing dead ticks.

Innovative thinking

The results suggest that the finches are using the cigarette butts to “medicate” their nests against the ticks, says Macías Garcia. ‘‘Ectoparasites such as ticks and mites cause damage to finches – for example, eating their feathers and sucking their blood,” he says.

“It’s fascinating, and an exciting example of animals being innovative and making use of the materials available to them,” says at Royal Holloway, University of London.

However, Macías Garcia’s earlier studies suggest the habit is harmful too. “The butts cause [genetic] damage to finches by interfering with cell division, which we assessed by looking at their red blood cells,” he says.

“I think the anti-parasite effects the cigarette butts provide must outweigh any negative problems they cause,” says Portugal. “Alternatively, the genotoxic effects take longer to manifest, and the adult birds aren’t aware of any problem.”

DNA of clothes

In vogue on the slopes

The decline of England’s wild bees has been linked for the first time to the use of controversial neonicotinoid pesticides on oilseed rape farms.

Neonicotinoids are applied to the seed prior to planting and can be transported to all tissues of a crop, meaning creatures that feed on the nectar will ingest them.

The various effects such pesticides might have on bees have been documented before, but there was no strong evidence linking them to long-term losses of wild bee species.

Now, Ben Woodcock at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in Oxfordshire, UK, and his colleagues have studied data on 62 species collected by volunteers from more than 31,818 surveys across more than 4000 square kilometres of land.

They looked at bee populations between 1994 and 2011. In England, farmers first started using neonicotinoids on oilseed rape in 2002.

They found the average decline in populations across all bee species was 7 per cent since 2002. Some species, such the Bronze Furrow bee and the Spined Mason bee declined by 20 per cent or more.

Worse for more species

Species that forage on rapeseed were hit especially hard. On average, the effect on their population was three times as severe as the effect on species that don’t forage on rapeseed.

“The worst affected species declined by 30 per cent,” ��says Nicholas Isaac, of the CEH.

“As a flowering crop, oilseed rape is beneficial for pollinating insects,” says Woodcock. “This benefit however, appears to be more than nullified by the effect of neonicotinoid seed treatment.”

The main message is that these pesticides are harmful, and affect far more species than we previously thought, says Isaac.

“This correlative study has provided the first evidence of negative impacts of neonicotinoid use over the long term and at the national scale for many species of wild bee not previously studied,” says Richard Pywell, also of CEH.

Complex and contentious

Although the study shows a correlation, rather than proving a causation, “it’s really informative and powerful beyond what had previously been found” because it’s making use of these long-term data sets, says Woodcock.

The results suggest that neonicotinoid use could cause losses of bee biodiversity, the team says, and restrictions on such pesticides may reduce population declines.

There is now an EU moratorium on the use of neonicotinoids, but this could be lifted following a review by the European Food Standards Authority, which is expected to be completed in January.

“This is a complex and contentious issue. It is therefore important we gather as much evidence as possible on neonicotinoid effects on all facets of the environment,” says Pywell. “We should also consider carefully the impacts of alternatives to the use of neonicotinoid for crop protection.” This is because the alternatives may also have negative effects on wildlife.

Woodcock says neonicotinoids should be considered as a contributory factor to wild bee decline, but a complex array of drivers including habitat, climate change and disease are also important.

“It’s not a simple case that pesticides are causing declines,” he said. “It’s likely that there’s a whole series of interacting factors and while people like a one-shot solution, it’s probably not the case in most situations.”

Read more: Neonicotinoid pesticides are bad news for everything

Species: Arabian sand cat (Felis margarita harrisoni)

Habitat: Deserts of Arabia, northern Africa and central Asia

Blink and you’ll miss it. The sand cat is a shy and secretive animal only seen in the desert at night.

It’s a nocturnal hunter perfectly adapted to its desert home. It doesn’t need to drink water as it can get all it needs from the small birds, reptiles and mammals that are its prey. Special hairs in its ears and on its paws keep the sand out.

Despite its wide distribution across the deserts of North Africa, Arabia and Central Asia, little is known about this elusive species.

“There’s an absence of scientists working on sand cats and very few assessments are being made to assess the behaviour, population and status of the species,” says John Newby of the Sahara Conservation Fund.

Lack of records and difficulty in spotting it means we don’t even know how well it is faring. Sand cats are listed as “near threatened” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list and as endangered in the United Arab Emirates, where the Al Ain Zoo is a hotspot for captive breeding programmes to try to conserve the species.

“Sand cats are naturally rare,” says Newby. On top of that, populations are thought to be declining due to habitat loss and falling numbers of prey species.

In western UAE, the cat has only been documented in the wild anecdotally – and even such records date to 10 years or more ago.

In 2015, Shakeel Ahmed, an assistant scientist at The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) led a team studying the animals and plants of the Baynouna – a protected area in Abu Dhabi. They baited camera traps with cat food over several months and eventually managed to get 46 photos, which the team later identified as being of three individuals. Sightings were usually late on moonlit nights and at cooler times, suggesting the cats prefer medium to low temperatures of between 11 and 28 °C. Their habitat was in sparsely vegetated sand dunes.

The team also set traps for small animals, and caught Cheeseman’s gerbils and the lesser jerboa. Other sightings on the camera included the urchin beetle, and reptiles such as Arabian sand skink and gecko. All these mean there is plenty of food available in the region for the sand cat.

The team hopes this information will help inform future conservation strategies. For example, it could be useful for work comparing the relatedness of this population to those in neighbouring Oman and Saudi Arabia.

“It is clear that field research will all be extremely valuable in putting together conservations plans for the sand cats and their habitat, as well as pin-pointing those areas and their extent that may be turned into protected areas to conserve the cats,” says Newby. “��è����Ƶs need to be doing more research on how the sand cats live in order to create a suitable protected area.”

Journal reference: European Journal of Wildlife Research, DOI:

Read more: The cat made me do it: Is your pet messing with your mind?; Silver coat lets Saharan ants withstand scorching desert heat

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