A European zoo wanted to add a small rare bird called the bearded tit to its collection. Zoo officials studied the tit’s natural environment and behavior, and constructed a habitat for the birds. They carefully attended to the food, shrubbery, temperature, nesting materials, and lighting. After constructing the habitat, the zoo placed a male and a female tit there. The tits seemed quite happy in the environment. They sang, flew about, constructed a nest, laid eggs, and the eggs hatched. It seemed that the zoo had done a super job of providing the bearded tits with the perfect environment in which to thrive.
Then something very strange happened. After a few days, zoo keepers found the baby tits on the ground, dead. New chicks met the same fate and the zoo keepers soon realized that the adults were pushing the chicks out of the nest onto the ground, killing them. Why would these creatures kill their babies? Were they evil?
Desperate for answers, zoo officials returned to the bearded tit’s natural environment. They compared the behavior of the zoo’s tits to the behavior of bearded tits in the wild. They identified three patterns of behavior in the wild tits that seemed relevant.
First, adult tits in the wild spent most of their time searching for food and bringing it back to the chicks. Second, the wild chicks were always hungry and whenever the adults returned to the nest they were greeted by the chirps and open mouths of the chicks. Third, the adults removed all inanimate objects from the nest: old pieces of shell, uneaten food, everything that didn’t move was thrown out.
In contrast, the zoo chicks slept during the day because the adults brought them food in abundance and they were full. Based on their observations, zoo keepers modified the habitat to reduce the supply of food and make it harder for the adults to find it. As a result, the chicks ate less, stayed awake during the day begging for food, and were not thrown out of the nest by their parents.
This story holds some valuable lessons for us in regard to our current environment and our health. First, we are in balance with our environment in ways we may not understand. Second, more is not necessarily better: What appears good (or bad) on the surface may have unexpected negative (or positive) effects.