An investigation prepared by experts from the University of Sussex and collected by 'The Guardian' reveals that seagulls choose which foods are worth eating by watching humans. To carry out the study, developed on the beach of Brighton, they offered the seagulls two types of chips, some inside a red bag and others inside a blue bag.
They left both packages near the seagulls and stepped back several meters to record how the animals behaved. When the researchers were standing, simply watching the seagulls, about 20% of the gulls came to eat potatoes from the bags.
However, at the time the researchers ate potatoes from similar bags, 48% of the birds approached the packages to eat. It is also striking that, of all the seagulls they ate, 95% chose the package of the same color that the researcher had in his hands.
"We have shown that adult gulls can pay attention to the behaviour of humans and apply it to their own feeding choices," biologist Franziska Feist told The Guardian. Thus, after this research they consider that perhaps the classic posters of "Do not feed the seagulls" that can be read on some beaches is not enough.
- United Kingdom
- Feeding
- Environment
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