Richard Collins: Why civilisation has a downside for humans and animals alike

Studies have shown that chicks raised in back-gardens weighed 10% less than those raised in rural areas

House wren feeds bug to baby birds in backyard birdhouse

Our hunter-gather ancestors seem to have been taller and healthier than the farmers who succeeded them. This led geographer Jared Diamond to claim that adopting a settled way of life was ’the worst mistake in human history’. Becoming ‘civilised’ had a downside.

Humans were not alone in radically changing their way of life. Songbirds undertook a similar revolution. Many so-called ‘garden’ birds used to live along the fringes of woods. Seduced by the new habitats we created, and the relentless destruction of the forests, they became ‘the new kids on our block’.