Hold on to your ice cream, Mr President!
G7 WORLD LEADERS FACE CORNISH ‘SEAGULL ATTACK CAPITAL’
WORLD leaders are being warned to watch the birdies when they visit the UK’s gull attack capital.
Cornwall’s Carbis Bay will host the G7 summit, attended by US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
But the June meeting is in an area notorious for gull attacks – and some have caused serious harm when stealing food and protecting chicks.
One review of the bay, near St Ives, warned: “The seagulls remind me of the film ‘The Birds’ as they literally stole ice cream from my cornet.”
Another visitor wrote: “I was in St Ives today and witnessed two seagull raids in a few minutes along the seafront.
“These gulls are smart, they watch you from lamp posts and rooftops, then come from behind, over your shoulder and get you.”
Peter Rock, Britain’s leading expert on the birds, has urged President Biden and other world leaders to stay alert.
The Bristol University scientist said: “Gulls love high-calorie foods like chips, ice cream and pasties – the type of food often eaten by the seaside. “They also can get aggressive when they have young to protect and there will be young still not fledged during the G7 summit. So I would advise the Prime Minister, President Biden and the G7 leaders to avoid eating food in public – and definitely not to go on a walkabout while they or someone near is eating.”
Madeleine Goumas, of Exeter University, added: “June is the time when adult gulls are raising their chicks, so they will be under extra pressure to feed them as well as themselves.”
In 2015, four-year-old James Bryce nearly lost a finger in St Ives after a gull tried to grab his sausage roll and cut his hand.
Claire Field, a community pharmacist based at Carbis Bay, said: “When the birds are nesting my colleagues may see one or two people a week who have been hurt by an aggressive seagull.
“Probably more people have decided to treat the wounds themselves rather than seek the advice of a pharmacist. We have even seen adults and young children with cuts around and inside their mouths as well as their hands where sneaky seagulls have swooped down to take their food.” Cornwall council did not respond to
our request for a comment.