Seagulls hunger for food touched by human hands
They've adapted a little too well to human habits. (DepositPhoto/)As anyone who has ever had a boardwalk pizza slice snatched from their hand can attest, gulls are a bit of a menace when it comes to food. These birds thrive in human-created areas, where they find lots of things to mooch off us. A new study from researchers at the University of Exeter demonstrated that—at least for the herring gulls of Falmouth and Penzance, two towns in South West England—human touch may be the key to identifying tasty morsels.“Lots of species haven’t been able to do well in these environments,” says lead author Madeleine Goumas, an animal behavior scientist who studies birds. Herring gulls, on the other hand, “seem to be doing quite well in urban areas, which is interesting for a seabird.” In previous research, Goumas and her coauthors documented that herring gulls are less likely to steal your...