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Heartbreaking photos show a squirrel using plastic bags 'to build its nest'

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Heartbreaking photos of a squirrel using PLASTIC BAGS ‘to build its nest’ show the dismal impact of human litter on urban wildlife

  • Squirrel was seen by a photographer on a wall in London Borough of Haringey
  • Images reveal the animal struggling with the bulk and weight of the bags  
  • It is thought the rodent may have been using the plastic bags for a nest  

Disturbing images of a squirrel wrestling with large plastic bags reveal the difficulty urban wildlife has coping with human litter.

The squirrel was snapped by a photographer on a wall and may have been taking the carrier bags to help build its nest.  

This event may be the first direct evidence of the rodents using plastic litter in this way.

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The rodent is seen on its hind legs seemingly struggling under the bulk of the bags it is carrying in its two fore limbs. It can barely see where it is going through the plastic scraps it is carrying and transfers them into its jaws to scurry off

The rodent is seen on its hind legs seemingly struggling under the bulk of the bags it is carrying in its two fore limbs. It can barely see where it is going through the plastic scraps it is carrying and transfers them into its jaws to scurry off

The rodent is seen on its hind legs seemingly struggling under the bulk of the bags it is carrying in its two fore limbs.

It can barely see where it is going through the plastic scraps it is carrying and transfers them into its jaws to scurry off.  

In 2018 scientists discovered plastic in the nest of squirrels, indicating they had begun using plastic waste as a building material.  

Henry Jacobs, 73, spotted the squirrel along the Lee Valley Navigational Canal, in the London Borough of Haringey.

Mr Jacobs said: ‘When I first saw it, I didn’t know what I was looking at.

‘I knew it was an animal, but I genuinely couldn’t work out what animal it was for the first few seconds.

Disturbing images of a squirrel wrestling with large plastic bags reveal the difficulty urban wildlife is having with human litter. The squirrel was snapped by a photographer on a wall and may have been taking the carrier bags to help build its nest

Disturbing images of a squirrel wrestling with large plastic bags reveal the difficulty urban wildlife is having with human litter. The squirrel was snapped by a photographer on a wall and may have been taking the carrier bags to help build its nest

Henry Jacobs, 73, spotted the squirrel along the Lee Valley Navigational Canal, in the London Borough of Haringey. The behavioural change of squirrels collecting plastic waste to build their nests was first spotted by an Indian scientist in 2018

Henry Jacobs, 73, spotted the squirrel along the Lee Valley Navigational Canal, in the London Borough of Haringey. The behavioural change of squirrels collecting plastic waste to build their nests was first spotted by an Indian scientist in 2018

‘It was a very unusual sight. I thought, what is it doing with that? Why would it want plastic? It looked very odd.

‘I didn’t even know about squirrel nests until I looked it up later that day – and then I found out that they use what is available to them.’ 

The behavioural change of squirrels collecting plastic waste to build their nests was first spotted by an Indian scientist in 2018. 

Dr Mewa Singh, of the Bio-psychology Laboratory at the University of Mysore, in Karnataka, south India, observed the behaviour in Indian palm squirrels.

His research discovered squirrels use plastic bags, plastic threads and cigar butts as nesting materials in urban areas, instead of leaves, twigs, shredded bark, mosses and other soft materials.

Researchers saw the squirrels collect a long plastic sheet from a small dump yard, carefully check it and tear it into the appropriate size and shape.

HOW MUCH RECYCLING ENDS UP IN LANDFILL?

Every day, millions of us drop a plastic bottle or cardboard container into the recycling bin – and we feel we’re doing our bit for the environment.

But what we may not realise is that most plastic never gets recycled at all, often ending up in landfill or incineration depots instead.

Of 30 billion plastic bottles used by UK households each year, only 57 per cent are currently recycled, with half going to landfill, half go to waste.

Most plastic never gets recycled at all, often ending up in landfill or incineration depots instead. Supermarkets are packed to the gills with plastic so I did my weekly shops at a farmers' market - something that may seem old-fashioned to ‘millenials’

Most plastic never gets recycled at all, often ending up in landfill or incineration depots instead. Around 700,000 plastic bottles a day end up as litter

Around 700,000 plastic bottles a day end up as litter.

This is largely due to plastic wrapping around bottles that are non-recyclable. 

Every year, the UK throws away 2.5 billion ‘paper’ cups, amounting to 5,000 cups a minute. 

Shockingly, less than 0.4 per cent of these are recycled.

Most cups are made from cardboard with a thin layer of plastic. 

This has previously posed issues with recycling but can now be removed. 

Five specialist recycling plants in the UK have the capacity to recycle all the cups used on our high-streets.  

Ensuring the paper cups end up in these plants and are not discarded incorrectly is one of the biggest issues facing the recycling of the paper vessels. 



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