Greedy gulls choose what to eat by watching humans, boffins have found.
The peckish pests use tourists’ cues and behaviour to make decisions on what to gobble down next.
Each year thousands of Brits are pestered – and even attacked – in seaside towns for their grub.
Researchers studied the habits of herring gulls on the beachfront in Brighton from May to June in 2021, and March to May in 2022.
A blue and green packet of crisps were laid on the ground.
Just five metres away a scientist would sit eating either a blue or green packet – or nothing at all.
The researchers found that nearly half of the seagulls went over to the packets of crisps when they spotted the scientist eating them.
A whopping 95% decided to pick the same colour treat as the person they saw eating them at the time.
A fifth of the gulls decided to look further afield for food when near a scientist eating nothing at all.
The research suggests the pests decide what they’d like to eat by paying close attention to what Brits are munching on nearby.
The study was carried out by Franziska Feist, Kiera Smith and Paul Graham from University of Sussex.
It appeared in the journal Biology Letters.
It comes after Blackpool Zoo and a seaside chippy in Whitby, North Yorkshire, hired volunteers to dress up in bird costumes to scare off the gutsy gulls.
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