Mary Bates, PhD

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Why Birds Mistake Plastic For Food

Some species of seabirds, including blue petrels, are particularly vulnerable to eating plastic debris at sea.Eating plastic debris is a major problem for hundreds of species of marine animals, from tiny zooplankton to giant baleen whales. A new study suggests that patches of floating plastic trash might act as olfactoty traps for susceptible seabirds, which use odor to find food.Read about how plastic tricks seabirds into eating it on the PLOS Ecology Blog: Birds Mistake Plastic for Food Due To Its Smell.