Sky News Launches International Audio Service to Provide Non-Stop News Programming for Those on the Go
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 2023--
2023-05-25 00:17
Scientists discover why gulls always prey on people's food
Anyone who has braved a stroll along England's coastline will be aware of seagulls' tyrannical regime. They prey on people eating chips, they swoop down on unsuspecting holidaymakers licking an ice cream, and they can be quite aggressive indeed. And now, terrifying research has revealed that they are more calculating than you may have previously thought. A University of Sussex study on herring gulls at Brighton beach found that the birds choose what to eat by watching what humans are enjoying. Scientists taped green (salt and vinegar) and blue (cheese and onion) packets of Walkers crisps to tiles and placed them a few metres from gulls on Brighton beach and filmed the birds’ behaviour from a distance. In some cases, the researchers ate from one of the bags of crisps. When the scientists didn't eat, less than a fifth of gulls approached the crisp packets placed nearby. But when the researchers were snacking on crisps, 48 per cent of the birds came to check out the packets. Nearly 40 per cent of such approaches ended with gulls pecking at the crisp packets, and of these, 95 per cent were directed at the same colour packet as the scientist was eating from. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “We’ve shown that adult gulls are able to pay attention to the behaviour of humans and apply that to their own foraging choices,” said Franziska Feist, a biologist and first author on the study. “Given that the urbanisation of gulls is very recent, this ability must come from the gulls’ general smartness and behavioural flexibility.” “It is likely that simply deterring the public from directly feeding gulls may not be enough,” Feist said. “They are still able to observe what we eat and that would inform their ability to target waste, litter and so on.” Dr Madeleine Goumas, an expert on herring gulls at Exeter University who was not involved in the study, said: “We already know from previous research that gulls use information from people when they’re searching for food. “This study shows that we aren’t only drawing gulls’ attention to where food is, but they also learn about the type of food we’re eating. Knowing this may have implications for how we reduce negative interactions between humans and gulls, as we seem to be inadvertently teaching gulls to exploit new food items.” Meanwhile, past alarming research revealed that gulls prefer food that has been touched by people. Overall, it's giving Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-05-24 22:19
Matt Berry set to star in Minecraft film
Matt Berry is in talks to star with Jason Momoa in the 'Minecraft' film adaptation.
2023-05-24 19:21
Ice Cube implores Drake to sue the person behind the AI song Heart On My Sleeve
Rapper Ice Cube says he would sue anyone who creates a song using AI to mimic his vocals.
2023-05-24 19:20
Here's why controversial influencer Andrew Tate claims watching anime turns people into 'losers'
The former professional kickboxer Andrew Tate has said that watching anime over the age of 15 makes one a ‘loser’
2023-05-24 18:57
Kai Cenat claps back at KSI for mocking his and IShowSpeed's new song 'Dogs': 'Stick to boxing'
Kai Cenat and ISnowSpeed collaborated for a song titled 'Dogs'
2023-05-24 13:59
Sony says independent player status paying off in streaming war
By Sam Nussey TOKYO Sony Group Corp said on Wednesday that its status as an independent provider of
2023-05-24 12:20
Filmmakers at Cannes grapple with 'tectonic' AI shift
At an AI talk on a Cannes beach, a presenter's voice is cloned and used to say a random phrase in three languages, while another's face is replaced...
2023-05-24 10:52
Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 5i 24 Review
The Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 5i 24 is a smaller replica of the 27-inch Lenovo IdeaCentre
2023-05-24 09:54
Cougar Duoface RGB Review
Being two-faced doesn’t have a positive connotation, but let’s set that aside for the duration
2023-05-24 08:29
8 Things You Might Not Know About Harrison Ford
The actor once hit the road with The Doors and was a little ticked off over 'Titanic.'
2023-05-24 02:19
'Fast X': Kai Cenat and NLE Choppa compare 'Angel' to Wiz Khalifa’s 'See you again', fans shower love
Kai Cenat was in the intro of 'Fast X' while Choppa made a song for the action movie
2023-05-23 16:52