Drones spray the eggs with oil to prevent them from hatching - CDSI

  • After Nice, Cannes also launches sterilization operations for gull eggs.
  • "The idea is not to eradicate the species but to restore a certain balance", they say in the city of festivals.

For the first time this spring, Cannes, like in Nice, hunted gull eggs. Nearly 160 of them, tracked on the roofs of the city of festivals by drones, were covered with sunflower oil ... to prevent their hatching.

But then why so much hatred? “Over the years, the population of these birds has grown in the city, where they find multiple sources of food. And with this larger presence, there have also been increased reports of aggressive behavior, ”replies Muriel Cucchi, head of the hygiene, health and environment department of the city of Cannes.

Prefectural decree

Threatened domestic animals, picnics, the volatile does not really have a good press in the coastal communities. Especially if we add, as the town hall of Nice points out, “the cries and the droppings”. The latter also announced that she was also able to "process" 300 eggs this year.

How is it possible ? The white-backed gull is a species protected by the environment code. These sterilization campaigns "are authorized each year by prefectural order in order to avoid the proliferation of this species in the city", indicates the town hall of Nice. Specifically, "a ministerial decree has been issued making it possible to derogate from the peculiarity of a protected species, without touching live birds and attacking only the eggs", explains Muriel Cucchi again. The process is also used on the Atlantic coast.

"The idea is not to eradicate the species, but to restore a certain balance," she says. Balance still disturbed by confinement. Some nests have been spotted on beaches and even in the middle of a construction site.

Nice

The Promenade des Anglais deserted, a gull settles there (quiet) to brood its eggs

Nice

Kidnapped by a gull, the Poppi cat was found safe and sound

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