Is a stolen fast-food diet what’s making seagulls so chippy?
Humans may be to blame for birds’ aggression
AGGRESSIVELY swooping seagulls have become the scourge of coastal towns and cities across the country, with attacks on people for food now commonplace.
But researchers aim to find out if humans are to blame for the birds’ mood swings – and if our discarded junk food makes them angry.
St Andrews University PhD student Rebecca Lisken plans to compare the diets of wild island gulls with those of their city-dwelling, junk food-guzzling cousins. She hopes to discover if the fresh marine diet of the island birds influences their behaviour in later life, compared to those who swipe greasy fish and chips from unsuspecting passers-by.
Miss Lisken, 24, said herring and lesser black-backed gulls are increasingly seen in builtup areas where they feast on leftover human food, often with a high fat or high sugar content. This can range from an ice cream cone to leftover chips and kebabs.
Miss Lisken said linking the birds’ diet with later life behaviour may reveal why gulls are often viewed as pests in cities and suburbia.
‘They’re well known for stealing people’s food and they’re noisy and smelly,’ she said. ‘Day-to-day people just don’t have a good relationship with them.’
She added: ‘The main focus of the research this year is to investigate variation in foraging behaviour and gull diet in herring and lesser black-backed gulls in order to assess the influence of this on the physiological and behavioural development of chicks.
‘Although there are six species of gull that can be seen regularly across the UK, herring and lesser black-backed gulls are two species that have become heavily associated with urban areas. Both species are increas ingly utilising anthropogenic sites for nesting and foraging and this has led to growing reports of wildlife conflict in UK towns and cities.
‘However, the influence of an anthropogenic diet on chick physiology and behaviour in gulls has not been studied to date. This is particularly interesting at a time when urban gull populations are increasing and more individuals are exploiting high-fat, high-sugar food resources.’
Miss Lisken will split her time between Aberdeen and the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth to carry out the research.
The project is a National Environment Research Councilfunded collaboration between the University of St Andrews and the British Trust for Ornithology.
Last year, more than 200 seagulls – including 30 chicks – were shot after officials in Dundee decided to act over a plague of aggressive birds.
Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it is illegal to kill, injure or remove any wild birds, including seagulls. But authorities are allowed to shoot them if every other non-lethal alternative has been found to be ineffective.
The city council had previously tried noise deterrents, plastic owls, anti-landing systems and netting.
Council chiefs believe that seagull numbers have increased after reforms at the city’s recycling centres, which have led to hungry birds scavenging for food.
During a Commons debate last February, Tory MP AnneMarie Trevelyan said her Berwick-upon-Tweed constituency had been so besieged last summer that ‘someone took it upon themselves to institute their own cull’.
She told MPs: ‘People are having to take the law into their own hands to deal with these really difficult and aggressive birds, which means there are people wandering the streets of Berwick with firearms who really shouldn’t be doing so.’
Aberdeen North Nationalist MP Kirsty Blackman told the debate: ‘The Aberdeen seagull is the size of a large dog, absolutely ginormous.’
‘They are noisy and smelly’