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News: January 2004

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Blue tits no longer raid our milk bottles

Appeared on Space For Nature on 3rd January 2004
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One of most endearing antics of the blue tit (Parus caeruleus) has been its practice of raiding door-step milk deliveries for the cream, but the consensus amongst the experts is that this habit has now died out.
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 Details  
The behaviour was first noticed some 75 years ago and rapidly spread across the whole of Britain. It reached its peak during the 1950s and 60s; there were even reports of flocks following milk floats ready to pounce on the bottles as soon as they were delivered. But the RSPB's 'wildlife enquiry service' has had only one call about this behaviour in the last 10 years and other experts confirm that the habit appears to have died out.

Changes in our milk consumption habits are to blame. We now tend use door-step deliveries less and modern containers are more secure. Blue tits are typically short-lived birds and it does not take for this sort of cultural behaviour to be forgotten.
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 Source  
Michael McCarthy. 2003. Blue tits lose their bottle as milk thieves. Viewed on the web at http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=477107 on January 2nd 2004.

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