Litter-plucking crows get jobs at French theme park

Long gone are the days of carrier pigeons — today, there are cleaning crows. This week, a French theme park will employ a team of birds who have been trained to pick up trash, LiveScience reported Monday.

Not to be confused with the soft rock band of the 1990s, the cleaning crows were raised in captivity and were trained by the park's Academy of Falconry, so they're well-qualified for the job. More specifically, the birds are rooks, a type of bird in the crow family that's especially adept at sorting items.

The rooks have been working hard to learn how to keep the park free of litter, reports AFP, with a trainer who has been working with the species for more than 20 years. The team of six will pick up cigarette butts and other small pieces of garbage that are left behind at the Puy du Fou park.

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While the intelligent birds will not be enrolled in 401(k) plans as official park employees, they will get snacks throughout the day, as trash bins serve them a bit of bird food each time they deposit a piece of trash. The goal of the unusual new hires isn't just to keep things clean, a park official said, but also to teach park-goers that "nature itself can teach us to take care of the environment."