Urban waste impacts human and environmental health, and waste management has\udbecome one of the major challenges of humanity. Concurrently with new directives due to\udmanage this human by-product, illegal dumping has become one of the most lucrative activities\udof organized crime. Beyond economic fraud, illegal waste disposal strongly enhances\uduncontrolled dissemination of human pathogens, pollutants and invasive species. Here, we\uddemonstrate the potential of novel real-time GPS tracking of scavenging species to detect\udenvironmental crime. Specifically, we were able to detect illegal activities at an officially\udclosed dump, which was visited recurrently by 5 of 19 GPS-tracked yellow-legged gulls\ud(Larus michahellis). In comparison with conventional land-based surveys, GPS tracking\udallows a much wider and cost-efficient spatiotemporal coverage, even of the most hazardous\udsites, while GPS data accessibility through the internet enables rapid intervention. Our\udresults suggest that multi-species guilds of feathered detectives equipped with GPS and\udcameras could help fight illegal dumping at continental scales. We encourage further experimental\udstudies, to infer waste detection thresholds in gulls and other scavenging species\udexploiting human waste dumps
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