Food-snatching seagulls are more likely to leave you alone if you shout at them, researchers say

[cbabe]

https://apnews.com/article/shouting-scares-seagulls-eating-food-study-3893363e30db5f99462526a168fe0555

Food-snatching seagulls are more likely to leave you alone if you shout at them, researchers say

BY BRIAN MELLEY
Updated 7:32 AM PST, November 12, 2025

LONDON (AP) — Sweet talk won’t get you far if you want to scare off a seagull trying to snatch your food. Try shouting.

Researchers set out to find if a man’s voice was enough to deter bandit gulls from their penchant for purloining food in seaside towns and found it was effective if delivered with more urgency.

“Talking might stop them in their tracks, but shouting is more effective at making them fly away,” said Neeltje Boogert of the University of Exeter’s Center for Ecology and Conservation at the Cornwall campus.

The researchers placed fries in a Tupperware box in towns across the southwest coast of England and tested how 61 European herring gulls reacted to recordings of a robin’s song, a male voice saying, “No, stay away, that’s my food,” and a voice shouting those words.

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[Xavier Breath]

1. Works for family and pets, too.

[msongs]

2. are seagulls edible? they are as a big as chickens nt