It’s no surprise gulls come into conflict with us
Most people call them seagulls, notwithstanding the fact that some of our gulls may never even see the sea.
They are, I guess, of course more correctly just gulls and they come in a number of varieties.
In this airt we are particularly familiar with common gulls, black-headed gulls and lesser black-backed gulls. Nearer to the coast or indeed the Firth of Forth, herring gulls join in the clamour for gulls are never silent!
Recent visits to local supermarket car parks further emphasised gulls’ familiarity with man-made structures. From the tops of several such edifices, various gulls loudly proclaimed their presence!
However, gulls generally get a pretty bad press, accused of snaffling ice creams, fish and chips and many other morsels of food from the very hands of holiday makers as they stroll along promenades, enjoying the seaside. Furthermore, gulls have for long regarded buildings constructed along coastal areas as surrogate cliffs and thus as suitable nesting sites. This is perfectly natural in the sense that the ancestors of those gulls used to nest on the very shores now occupied by buildings.
Gulls are also accused of launching attacks on passing people, allegedly for no good reason. Gulls, it should always be remembered, are scavengers and naturally therefore, are always instinctively aware of any opportunity that may present itself to them to snatch a free snack! They are expert thieves, capable of filching food from other birds simply by smash and grab tactics, a technique they now also use to pinch food from humans.
As for random attacks on people, they may be related to the fact that gulls are naturally exceptionally doughty defenders of their off-spring; they are merely responding to basic instinct.
Thus, especially during the later summer months when their young are beginning to become upwardly mobile, parent birds may sometimes feel threatened by the presence of folk and as a means of defence, sometimes launch attacks on those passers by whom they perhaps mistakenly believe threaten their young. However, such attacks seldom result in physical contact.
Mobbing is one of the defensive tactics commonly used by gulls! Mock attack perhaps, as a means of defence! Of course, one of the things that people commonly do at the seaside is to feed gulls. They hurl bits of bread into the air so that the gulls can provide entertainment by catching them. Gulls are, of course, exceptional flyers and respond willingly to such opportunities.
On stormy days, they often further demonstrate their flying skills by flying in and out of the troughs created by rough seas, swooping within inches of the foaming surf in what may appear to be death defying feats. However, all the close contact modern gulls have with people imbues in them that extra degree of confidence which may translate into aggression. Thus in a curious way, familiarity may breed contempt!
Our profligacy, so evident in today’s ‘throwaway’ society, has also provided something of a bonanza for gulls. Wherever there are rubbish tips or landfill sites, there you will find the air thick with gulls. Such has been the effects of our wastefulness, that the lesser black-backed gull, once very much a migrant which routinely spent its winters on Africa’s west coast, has largely now become an around the year resident! In other words, our land of rubbish is their land of plenty!
The same applies to urban foxes. They also can partially lose that natural fear of humans, especially those of them that have made the transition from countryside to town. Indeed, urban based foxes have been encouraged to develop some kind of rapport with many of their human neighbours who, as a means of seeing wild animals at close quarters, may offer them food on a daily basis. Thus foxes based in settlements, having moderated that fear of humankind when finding a door or window open may decide to explore the ‘human habitat’. The press revels in such stories. “Fox bites woman in her house,” was a recently read headline. Remember that although foxes may seem to have conquered their fear of humans, they are still wild animals and if they are surprised in such situations by a hostile or even panic induced reception, their natural defensive instinct may well be to bite!
That toleration of close quarter living with human society even extends to badgers, also in places encouraged into people’s gardens by regular feeding. In such circumstances, the reputedly shy badgers may on occasions, happily reveal themselves to the cameras in gardens where the regular provision of food, such as peanuts, encourages them to throw off their customary reserve.
Some badgers have become unusually bold such as the one which, as recently reported, made its way through a cat-flap to help itself to the household’s dog food. Thereafter falling asleep in the dog’s basket, before eventually being carefully ushered out! One old acquaintance regularly encouraged pine marten into his kitchen by offering them a mixture of peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches!
In a sense, these are exceptions to the rules, for irrespective of their willingness to throw off their natural caution in response to the offer of easily obtained food these are nevertheless wild, not domestic animals. Such visitors should not be regarded as having become ‘tamed’ because they are willing to commune with us. They will and indeed, must retain as much of their wild instinct as possible in order to survive.
Thus, there is a subtle difference between creating a relationship with, for example, an urban fox compared with the many young animals and birds which in the past, I have found myself having to care for. Down the years, a number of fox cubs have passed through my hands. Interestingly, the one that was brought to me before its eyes had opened was far more trusting and indeed trustworthy compared with those that were even just a few days older.
However, never to be forgotten was the stoat which had been dealt a glancing blow by a car and which came to me in a comatose condition. It soon recovered sufficiently to make its way round our sitting room via the mantelpiece, picture frames and various items of furniture. It also used my shoulders as a stepping stone between each of these items! It certainly seemed to know no fear of us, albeit that I was always wary of it!
Our ever-expanding human population encroaches continuously upon the domains of our wild creatures. Therefore, we should not be entirely surprised that from time to time this can cause conflict in many different ways. We just need to acknowledge that this is their world too! Let’s live and let live!