Want to stop seagulls stealing food? Just stare at them, says new research

File picture: Tracey Adams/African News Agency (ANA)

File picture: Tracey Adams/African News Agency (ANA)

Published Aug 10, 2019

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London - Britain's seaside towns are at war

with their seagulls, urging visitors not to feed the birds in an

effort to stop them snatching titbits like potato chips from

tourists' hands.

Warning signs deck promenade railings from Scarborough to

Broadstairs and beyond but now research from the University of

Exeter has suggested an easy way for holidaymakers to deter the

gulls - just stare at them.

The research showed that with a human staring at them,

herring gulls took 21 seconds longer to approach a bag of chips

then when left apparently unobserved.

"Gulls are often seen as aggressive and willing to take food

from humans, so it was interesting to find that most wouldn’t

even come near during our tests," said lead author Madeleine

Goumas, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at Exeter’s

Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

The researchers tried to test 74 gulls but most flew away or

would not approach. Just 27 approached the food and 19 completed

the "looking at" and "looking away" tests.

"Of those that did approach, most took longer when they were

being watched," Goumas said. "Some wouldn’t even touch the food

at all, although others didn’t seem to notice that a human was

staring at them." 

Reuters

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