Gulls are renowned for snatching chips from tourists’ hands, but a scientific project has revealed the greedy birds also like to tuck into moles and quench their thirst with seal milk.
The discovery was among several surprising findings made by a University of Salford ecologist, Dr Alice Risely, after she set up a project asking the public to send her pictures of seagulls eating.
The project, named Gulls Eating Stuff, has received submissions from around the world showing the birds’ varied diet.
From sandwiches to profiteroles and starfish to coot chicks, it seems a gull rarely goes hungry. One person even submitted an image of a gull eating an unfortunate mole.
Risely, who has been researching gulls’ diets to better understand them, said: “I’ve seen photos of gulls suckling the milk from seals. There’s also a real problem in South America with the different species [of gull] there. They’ve got this really nasty habit of landing on sleeping whales and eating [their] flesh.”
Some gulls, including lesser black-backed gulls, are migratory so may learn eating habits elsewhere and bring them to the UK. “The thing with gulls is, because they’re very smart these behaviours spread culturally,” Risely said.
She added that gulls had increasingly shifted from living in natural habitats in coastal regions to more urban areas.
While researchers have studied gulls in their natural habitat extensively, less is known about the habits of those that have moved into urban areas. A way to understand this shift could be through their eating habits.
Although the project was in its infancy, Risely said the findings so far had shown that while gulls happily take advantage of the seaside snacks left behind by humans, they are very much predatory animals.
“Hopefully what will come out of it in terms of public education, it’s the gulls are not just scavengers, they’re predators,” she said. “A lot of them are actually out there eating quite natural prey items; eating worms, but also eating chicks and some small mammals, and kind of acting like a normal wild animal should.”
There did seem to be a connection in the gulls’ diet regardless of their habitat, Risely said.
“What people don’t know, which I’m seeing in my own research, is just how important earthworms are. Yes, they are eating baby birds and mammals, but probably by far the most important food item for all gulls is worms. It doesn’t matter if you’re a town gull or a sort of trad gull, you will in the morning go to a field and eat worms and invertebrates.”
The project’s global reach has meant gull diets can be observed on a larger scale, which may help researchers to work out where eating trends began.
To contribute a photo of a gull eating, visit the Gulls Eating Stuff website.
