Swedish city training crows to pick up cigarette butts

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Crows will be sent to pick up discarded cigarette butts and other forms of litter from the streets of a Swedish city. The wild birds are being trained through a step-by-step process to pick up rubbish and place it into a machine which will dispense food for them in the city of Södertälje.

Christian Günther-Hanssen, the founder of the company, estimates the use of crows could save Södertälje, which currently spends 20million Swedish kroner (£1,601,518) on street cleaning, at least 75 per cent of costs.

He also said the wild birds were 'taking part on a voluntary basis' and were 'easier to teach' than other birds.

As part of their training the crows are taught to pick up the cigarette butts and throw them into a special vending machine.

The vending machine, which will be able to tell the litter apart from other items such as stones and leaves, will then reward the bird with food.

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