Research: The seagull prefers to eat fish

Urbanized seagulls seem like robbers of hamburgers and ice cream cones, but they prefer to eat nutritious seafood if given the choice.

British researchers demonstrated this with 27 gray gull chicks that had fallen from the roofs of city houses and were raised in a nursery before being released.

Young were divided into two groups.

The other’s meals consisted of 80 percent urban food, which included bread and cat food, and 20 percent seafood, which included fish and shellfish. The other group got the opposite percentages.

Finally, the chicks’ preferences were tested by offering all four ingredients simultaneously on different plates.

Regardless of their previous habit, all the chicks attacked the fish most greedily and showed the most bread, the researchers say In Peer J.

Self in fact, even urban seagulls are known to prefer to carry fish to their chicks, which provides plenty of proteins necessary for growth.

The seagulls apparently munch on the supply of garbage rather for lack of something better than for the fulfillment of any food dreams, the researchers guess.

Published in Science in Nature 6/2024