Key Points
- New research confirms that shouting at seagulls is an effective way to make them leave your food alone.
- The study found that gulls are sensitive to the human tone of voice, reacting more strongly to shouting than to a neutral speaking voice.
- Gulls that were shouted at were more likely to fly away, while those spoken to neutrally tended to waddle off.
- The research provides a simple, non-violent way to manage interactions with this at-risk bird species.
If you’ve ever had a seagull try to steal your food at the beach, you might be happy to know that shouting at it is a good way to stop it. New research published in Biology Letters, by a team of scientists, shows that these birds are sensitive to our tone of voice and will fly off when we yell at them.
The team’s previous research, published in 2022, showed that urban herring gulls (the most common type of “seagull” in the UK) see shouting men as a threat. The new study sought to determine whether gulls were afraid of human voices in general, or whether it was the way we spoke to them that mattered.
The researchers had five British men record themselves saying, “No! Stay away! That’s my food, that’s my pasty!” once in a shouting voice and once in a neutral, “speaking” voice. They then played these recordings to gulls in Cornish coastal towns.
The results were clear: gulls that heard both the shouting and the speaking were much more likely to flinch, stop pecking at the food, and leave the area compared to gulls that just heard a recording of a robin singing.
Interestingly, the gulls that were shouted at were more likely to fly away, while those that were spoken to neutrally tended just to waddle away. This suggests that the gulls pay attention to our tone of voice and leave more quickly when we sound angry.
While it might not be a surprise that animals respond to how we talk to them (dog and horse owners can tell you that), it’s interesting to see this in a wild animal like a herring gull. Gulls have likely learned to associate our angry tones with a threat.
Despite seeming common, herring gulls are actually on the UK’s red list of species of highest conservation concern. Their population has dropped by half in the last 50 years. This research shows there are easy, non-violent ways to deal with them. The team previously found that even just staring at a gull can keep it away from your food. And, of course, the best thing you can do is not to feed them in the first place.
