Mullion Island , just south of Cornwall in England , seems like it should be an idyllic billet . There are no lasting house physician on the island , and anyone look to ill-treat foot there needs to prevail a permit first . But the isolated eyepatch of land is plagued by a job that ’s common in urban center : rearing contamination . Rubber stripe have been turn up there by the thou , and expert think the problem stems from the bands ' resemblance to worms , Smithsonianreports .
The rangers who managed the island own by the National Trust were ab initio baffled by the visual aspect of the bands . The knew they were n’t coming from the website ’s visitant , so something else had to have been transporting the trash there .
Birding establishment West Cornwall Ringing Group look into the mystery further this twelvemonth . Mullion Island is a sanctuary for gulls and other types of seabird , so the researcher see their former nesting area to empty the built - up waste product and possibly identify its source . They found what they were looking for in pellets of bird poop : The feces turn back remnants of rubber bands and fishing line of merchandise , indicating that the birds had been mistaking them for food . They likely pick up the bands while looking for nutrient on the farm of nearby Cornwall . Many of these farms grow flowers and use rubber bands to secure them together , and scientists trust birds searching for food in the athletic field then eat the bands .
If the Mullion birds are swallow synthetic rubber and charge plate and feast it to their young , that could have calamitous consequences for the universe . Researchersreportedthat the 2019 nesting season was " disappointingly poor " for the 70 couple of large black - backed patsy on the island . The comportment of litter on the island was probable just one factor at manoeuvre : Warming sea and dwindling Pisces gunstock have push the decline of sea bird across the UK in recent geezerhood .
[ h / tSmithsonian ]
