Puy du Fou is a historical theme park in Les Epesses village of Western France known for its variety entertainment shows. More than two million people visit the place every year to watch its artists enchant the crowd featuring the Vikings, musketeers, thrilling horseback riding and sword fighting in different historical settings.
Numerous shows like the falcon show and flamenco dancing performed by birds and animals have made it the second most popular theme park in France after Disneyland Paris. It all began in 1977 on the ruins of an old Renaissance castle portraying the adventurous life of Maupillier family that prevailed from the fourteenth century to World War II.
Now the Puy du Fou has added another feather on its cap—six crows do litter-picking at the park.
They have been trained to pick up paper bits, cigarette butts any other rubbish thrown away by the crowd on their visit. For dropping these leftovers in the trash box, the birds will get food as reward. The rubbish collectors at the park are rooks which belong to a crow family that are highly sociable.
The idea to use the rooks for cleaning was worked out by Christophe Gaborit, a falconer at the park, who had successfully trained crows to pick up and give roses to a 'princess' in a castle for the show. The "particularly intelligent" rooks belong to a crow family that also includes ravens and jackdaws.
The trainers applied the know-how from 'crow vending machine' invented by Josh Klein that dispensed a peanut every time a crow picked up a coin and deposited in the machine. Every time a rook dropped a piece of rubbish, a nugget of bird food popped up. The birds are motivated by the reward and picked up “the game” quickly.
Biologists are convinced about the skill of crows in solving complex puzzles. The birds are as 'intelligent as a seven-year-old child' in tool making, tearing strips or making a hook by bending a wire. The birds can 'talk' with humans, remember their human friends or foes for a long time. There are many stories surrounding the intelligence of crows. Noah sent out a raven to find out if the water had gone down. The ravens brought bread and meat for Elijah each morning and evening.
It took six months for training Boubou, Bamboo, Bill, Black, Bricole and Baco who have been deployed to work for four days a week. More feathery workers are set to join them shortly. The human cleaning staff have not become redundant but keep a watch on the crowd to make sure they do not add to the new team's labour.