Mastodawn

It's not weird for some species to incorporate toxins from their diet as defenses: poison dart frogs, monarch butterflies, sea slugs, etc

But let's get weird and circuitous with it

#Nicotine was developed by plants to kill insects. As a quirk of #neurochemistry, humans use it addictively, so cigarette butts are everywhere

Birds have figured out they can use them in their nests to repel insect parasites

The original intention of nicotine

Weird!

Are we sure the birds aren't just crashing out after reading the New York Times?

😂

you know what?

you're right

i removed the nytimes link and replaced it with the linked study from poland

nytimes link pasted here instead in the comments for posterity:

Research from Poland adds to evidence from Latin American countries that compounds in used cigarette butts ward off parasites in bird nests.

The New York Times