Anti-bird spikes spotted on trees in Britain are believed to have been installed to protect cars from being splattered by bird poo.
If only there was some way to, oh, I don’t know… wash the car?
Sometimes it seems like we’re moving one step forward, two steps back when it comes to making environmentally friendly changes. We might be making headway in ditching single-use plastic, which is excellent, but now birds are literally losing their homes just for the convenience of humans? No one gave us the right to be this privileged.
The spikes were spotted covering branches in Oxford, and the resulting view was much uglier than if there had been a few birds nests scattered among the trees.
Wildlife campaigner Hugh Warwick shared a picture of the horrible scenes on Twitter, along with the caption:
how much do you hate wildlife? #nets are newly in the news but these spikes have been up for a year or two in Oxford – same idea, keep birds away from limited habitat for our convenience … maybe we could learn to share?
The ecologist spoke to the BBC about the situation, recalling his thoughts when he first saw the spikes.
He said:
Well the initial reaction was ‘oh for goodness sake, this is ridiculous.’
Spikes are a really valuable tool. If you look around Oxford there are many colleges, many buildings which use spikes to prevent the birds landing there, roosting there and their droppings corroding the buildings.
Hugh continued:
But the presence of spikes on a tree is something which I feel is moving into a different league. It’s preventing birds from using their natural habitat.
What it shows is the great disconnect we’ve got from the natural world; this great separation. And that is something which has quite wide ramifications
The owners of the tree in the picture reportedly declined to comment, but Hugh believes the spikes are being used to stop birds pooing on cars parked underneath.
Hugh’s picture of the spikes was met with a lot of outrage, with one person writing:
Spikes on TREES??? What fresh hell is this?? Just so they wouldn’t have to clean up?
Another responded:
That looks like some kind of Medieval torture. How sad when Cars are deemed more important then the Wildlife [sic]
It’s truly disheartening to see our lack of respect for wildlife, especially when it comes to their own habitats. It needs to stop.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.