Meet the scientist
Anouk Spelt’s work with urban-nesting gulls in Bristol has important implications for how to manage interactions with wildlife in our cities.
Anouk Spelt on what she learnt by studying the habits of urban gulls
'' I’ve got a keen interest in urban ecology and how we, in cities, live with the nature we have. T
University aerospace engineering departments aren’t the traditional home of behavioural ecologists. Yet that is exactly where Anouk Spelt found herself when she began her PhD in urban-nesting gull populations at the University of Bristol.
The Bio-Inspired Flight
Lab investigates animal flight with a view to developing new technologies, particularly around unmanned drones. Urban gulls are studied, alongside insects and gliding birds like peregrine falcons. "We look at how they move, and how they change the morphology of their wings, says Spelt. 'My whole lab was engineers. I was the only one coming in as a biologist, saying 'I also want to know why they fly like that’.” Spelt's first task, when it came to studying Bristol's large population of urban-nesting gulls, was simply 'figuring out something about their lives', she says. Numbers of lesser black-backed gulls have increased dramatically in UK cities in the past 40 years. Spelt's two studies, on the foraging behaviour and habitat use of these gulls, sought to explore the factors behind this population surge.
With the help of urban gull specialist Peter Rock, Spelt fitted 12 gulls with GPS-tracking devices that collect almost real-time data on their movements.
“We saw straightaway that the gulls would go to specific places multiple times the same week, or every day. That’s when we decided to go to these places to figure out what they’re doing there,” she says.
Cue a series of visits to locations in and around Bristol, from school playgrounds to farmland and landfill sites. Spelt wasn’t able to find the specific birds she was tracking, but was able to observe the behaviour of
other gulls at those locations and was delighted by what she saw. They appeared to be adapting their foraging to coincide with human timetables, frequenting school playgrounds around breaktime and agricultural land at ploughing time.
Spelt is keen to continue this work, studying how urban gulls have come to adapt their foraging behaviour, perhaps alongside other urban-dwelling species such as foxes and crows, which have shown similar flexibility. “It’s not only gulls that are able to do this,” she says. “I’ve got a keen interest in urban ecology and how we, in cities, live with the nature we have.”
Such a project could have important implications for city planning, Spelt believes, enabling the creation of urban environments where people and animals can live together harmoniously. She’s passionate about the potential for education to raise public awareness around the amazing animals in our midst. “With urbanisation increasing, there won’t be that much nature left at some point. So we need to figure out a way we can live together.” Jo Caird