Quoth the Raven: You Done Eating That?

It turns out that processed junk foods aren't just bad for human health.

A recent study appearing in the journal Ecological Adaptations and featured on New Scientist indicates that urban crow populations are demonstrating a preference for the empty calories, too, and the lower nutritional quality of their revised diet is having a noted impact on the bird population's physiology.

White-tailed deer, squirrels, raccoons, and several species of birds are just a few of the critters that have learned to adapt, often advantageously, to life along side modern human populations. But when it comes to dumpster diving for left-behind junk food, crows are giving themselves short shrift.

While the effects of over-consumption of junk food by humans leads invariably to the telltale paunch, we're not seeing in crow populations the creation of birds too fat to get off the ground. Rather, the adequate caloric content but poor nutritional quality of their modified diet is causing birds to fail to grow to their normal size.

Go ahead, by all means, enjoy your fries. But clean your plate, because someone who probably shouldn't will otherwise be all too happy to help you polish them off.