Gulls choose what to eat by watching humans.
Gulls study humans to decide what to eat
Research conducted on herring gulls at Brighton beach has revealed that the birds can figure out which scraps are worth feeding on by studying what human beings are eating.
When given a choice of crisp packets to snack on, the gulls overwhelmingly chose the same colour bag that a person was munching on from several metres away.
Franziska Feist, a biologist and first author of the study at the University of Sussex, said: "We've shown that adult gulls are able to pay attention to the behaviour of humans and apply that to their own foraging choices.
"Given that the urbanisation of gulls is very recent, this ability must come from the gulls' general smartness and behavioural flexibility."
Boffins had already discovered that gulls prefer food that has been touched by people but it had been unclear how well they could rely on their observations of snacking humans to find similar foods while foraging.