Scientists Can’t Get Enough of Watching Seagulls Steal Your Food
- Birds’ ability to seamlessly swap marine food for a Big Mac—and outwit humans to get it—is a source of fascination
By Natasha Dangoor
June 5, 2025 11:00 pm ET
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St. Ives in Cornwall, which Rock dubs the “world capital of food snatching,” took a more human-targeted approach. The Business Improvement District launched a campaign to pack takeouts in paper printed with humorous and informative messages about gulls. This “Daily Gull” newspaper-style wrapping featured “Tips from the experts to help you protect your pasty” and quizzes on gull species.
One tip: Stare at the gulls.
Researchers at the University of Exeter did an experiment which showed that gulls took 21 seconds longer to approach a bag of fries when a human was watching them, compared with when the human looked away.
“It’s like shoplifting,” said Boogert. “You wouldn’t look at a shopkeeper whilst stealing from them!”
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Capturing dictation
As a long time, SHORE resident, I am very familiar with just how intelligent seagulls are. The kids love to feed them french fries and bread. One time as a joke one of them threw a mushroom with the bread. Despite several gulls, eating the bread, the mushroom was left like an orphan. Finally, some squirrel came along and ate it.
Tourists on the Seaside Heights boardwalk are often mobbed by seagulls stealing their food. Nothing is safe even a baby bottle. Well some people regard them as pests, they are fun to watch.
If the scientists are right, and I think they are, birds are descended from flying dinosaurs. One doesn’t survive a grazilian years without being adaptable and smart.
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