According to researchers, vacationers can stop stealing their food by looking at marine fish.
With this simple remedy in mind, scientists can put an end to the nightmares that birds have had to deal with for years.
In the initial study, they placed a bag of chips on the ground as a bait and tested how long it takes for herring gulls to reach.
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With human observation, this average was 21 seconds longer than they looked away, most people stay away.
And further studies have now shown that gulls were slower to move away when not seen – which can move a man closer to .5..5 feet on average.
In the latest research, scientists were approaching the gull while looking either at the ground or directly at the birds.
The study was conducted in Cornwall, United Kingdom, targeting adult gulls aged four years and older and adolescents born in the study year.
A total of 1,155 gulls of adults and 34 juveniles were tested in urban settlements and adults 34 juveniles in rural settlements.
“Herring gulls are increasingly breeding and foraging in urban areas, and therefore have regular contact with humans,” said Madeleine Gaumas, lead author of the Ecology and Conservation Center at the Exiter Penrine Campus in Cornwall.
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“We know from previous research that gulls are less likely to pack a bag of chips if a human is watching – but in that experiment the researcher either looked at gulls or turned his head.
“In our new study, the experimenter was approached while facing the gull and just changed the direction of their eyes – either looking down or towards the gull.”
The results also showed that newly developed gulls are more likely to react to human gaze direction like older birds, indicating that they are born with this instinct or learn it quickly.
Gaumas added, “We were interested to find out that gulls pay particular attention to the direction of the human eye and this is especially true for teenagers as well as adults – so that people’s negative interactions with people do not come to their notice for months or years.”
Researchers at the University of Exeter say they want to test the theory that gulls notice when humans are spotted, and run away early when they are spotted.
In this study, the widely held view also confirms that urban gulls are more daring than rural gulls – to let a person walk close to an average of 8 feet before walking or flying.
Gups were lured with chips to coastal towns in a study by Gaumas last year.
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While they were watching the gulls approached more slowly or not. Many people arrived in seconds when the experimenter looked away.
“By keeping an eye on gulls, people will probably be able to save their lunch by reducing negative encounters with this rapidly declining species,” Gaumas said.
His team tried to test 74 birds along the Cornish coast, but most of the 27 came close to food.
That study was published in the Royal Society’s Biology Letters focusing on 19 who completed both “watching” and “looking away” tests.
Gaumas said, “Of all the people who take the approach, most took more time when they were seen.
“Some did not even touch the food, although others saw a man staring at them.
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“We haven’t investigated why individual gulls were so different – it could be because of differences in ‘personality’ and some may have had positive experiences of being fed by humans in the past.”
The new paper, published in the journal Animal Behavior, is entitled: “Dislike Herring Gulls for Observation in Urban and Rural Human Settlements.”