Olive Growers Unintentionally Vacuum Up Millions Of Songbirds During Harvest Each Year
Between October and January of every year, millions of birds from central and northern Europe make their way south to the Mediterranean to spend their winter months in warmer conditions. But for hundreds of thousands of birds, it could be their final resting place. That’s because high-intensive automated harvesting machinery meant to strip trees of their olives during the night are unintentionally sucking up songbirds with them, according to an editorial piece written in Nature. Olives are harvested at night to help preserve their “aromatic compounds”, but roosting birds blinded by bright lights and stunned by machinery become accidental victims in the process. The Andalusian government in Spain has already put a halt to the process after it was found …
