Scientists believe they’ve cracked an age-old problem for those living in or visiting British seaside towns – how to keep your food safe from seagulls.
The answer, according to experts from the University of Exeter, is to shout.
Researchers reached their conclusion after testing 61 herring gulls across nine seaside towns in Cornwall, to look at ways of stopping the birds from snacking on a box of chips on the ground.
To do this, they played a recording of a male voice shouting the words: “No, stay away, that’s my food”.
They also played the same voice speaking those words, and the neutral birdsong of a robin.
Importantly, scientists say, all three different noises were played at the same volume.
Half of the gulls exposed to the shouting noise flew away within a minute, the experiment found.
Only 15% of the gulls exposed to the speaking male voice flew away. The rest walked away from the food, still sensing danger.
By contrast, 70% of the gulls exposed to the robin song stayed near the food for the duration of the experiment.
‘Shouting is more effective at making them fly away’
Dr Neeltje Boogert, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall, said: “The difference was that the gulls were more likely to fly away at the shouting and more likely to walk away at the speaking.
“So when trying to scare off a gull that’s trying to steal your food, talking might stop them in their tracks, but shouting is more effective at making them fly away.”
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The experiment called on five male volunteers for the recordings, speaking the same phrase in a calm voice, and then shouting.
They were adjusted to be at the same volume, which suggests gulls can detect differences in the acoustic properties of human voices.
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Dr Boogert added: “Normally, when someone is shouting, it’s scary because it’s a loud noise, but in this case, all the noises were the same volume, and it was just the way the words were being said that was different.
“So it seems that gulls pay attention to the way we say things, which we don’t think has been seen before in any wild species, only in those domesticated species that have been bred around humans for generations, such as dogs, pigs and horses.”
The experiment was designed to show that physical violence is not necessary to scare off gulls.
