The next time a seagull eyes your food, STARE them down
Seagulls are typically harmless to humans, but when they are on a hunt for your food it seems that there is little that can be done to thwart the attack. A new study proposes a solution to the thieving birds - stare them down when they are trying to steal your food.
Researchers from the University of Exeter placed a bag of potato chips on the ground and tested how long it took for herring gulls to approach the food when a human was staring at them. They later compared these times to how long it took the seagulls to approach the food when a human was looking away.
When the seagulls were being looked at they took 21 seconds longer on average to approach the food and some would not even attempt to snatch it. Of the 74 birds that were tested in the trials only 27 would come near the food, whether they were being watched or not.
Credit: Unsplash
The study notes that some seagulls are used to being fed by humans and says this could be why some of the birds did not hesitate to take the food when a human was staring at them.
The researchers conducted this study to investigate how urban gull feeding behaviour impacts their population and says that human-wildlife conflict is one of the greatest threats to the species.
They say that reducing the food-snatching behaviours could decrease the potential for human-wildlife conflict and will also prevent frustrating interactions for humans.
The study concludes that the test trials show that a small portion of the seagull population makes the species appear more aggressive in stealing food than they really are.
Source: University of Exeter
