This Ridiculously Simple Trick Might Stop Gulls From Nabbing Your Lunch (gull-safe!)

[usonian]

https://gizmodo.com/this-ridiculously-simple-trick-might-stop-gulls-from-nabbing-your-lunch-2000742276

Few things can ruin a fun beach or park outing as quickly as a gull with a hankering for your lunch. But a recent study might have just uncovered a nifty trick that can keep these feathery thieves at bay.

Researchers in the UK studied how European herring gulls (Larus argentatus) in the city reacted to various types of takeout boxes. The gulls were substantially less likely to approach or peck at boxes that had googly eyes attached to them, they found. Though not every bird was deterred, the simple design strategy could help ease human-gull conflict, the researchers say.

“Identifying and exploiting pre-existing sensory biases of animals remains an important area of research for animal deterrents,” they wrote in their paper, published last month in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

Scary eyes



Eyes and eye contact are known to spook away many predatory or scavenging animals, birds included. Some prey animals have even evolved to incorporate eye-like patterns in their appearance to ward off would-be snackers, such as various species of butterflies.

I mean, would YOU???