City Gulls: Annoying scavenger or resourceful rival?

A Liverpool ecologist has launched a robust defence of the city’s seagulls after claims of an ‘invasion’ by aggressive ‘scavengers from the air’.

Complaints of sandwiches stolen and people intimidated by swooping birds are increasingly commonplace among city shoppers and workers with the Liverpool ECHO even dubbing the brazen seabirds XL Gullies.

Now Dr Torsten Wronski, a behavioural ecologist at Liverpool John Moores University has leapt to their defence, describing gulls as ‘intelligent, problem-solvers’ and arguing that humans have become complacent over a lack of competition from other animal species.

“Gulls are highly adaptable, problem-solvers, able to recognise individual human faces and remember past encounters. They are also nature's clean-up crew, feeding on dead fish on shorelines, playing an important role in maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems,” he asserted.

So why be city-dwellers?

“Many coastal cities, including Liverpool, were built within the natural breeding habitat of seagulls. Today, rooftops mimic sea cliffs, litter and food waste provide easy meals, cities are warmer than natural breeding sites, and predators are scarce,” explains Dr Wronski, of the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences.

The upshot is seagulls became city gulls—and, as a scholar of the impact on animals of human expansion and urbanisation – Wronski describes seagulls as “a remarkable example of wildlife adapting to urban life.”

The growth in numbers is just a mirror of the volume of food now available around cites like Liverpool, Blackpool.

But why be so loud and aggressive?

“They are certainly bold when defending feeding sites, competing with other gulls, or stealing food from other species,” says Wronski. In evolutionary terms, he says, this competition for urban food favours confident, opportunistic individuals. As regards their shrieking, loud calls, he explains this is to warn off rivals, predators and even people who get too close.

The loudness of their calls also helps family members keep track of one another, especially in busy colonies spread across rooftops.

“Unfortunately for slumbering humans, gulls can be in full voice around first light because that's when it's easiest to forage and establish territories.” They are even louder in late spring and early summer – their breeding season!

About to swoop? The rooftops of city buildings mimic seacliffs.

Avoiding conflict!

Human-animal conflict usually ends badly for animals, so how should we manage the urbanisation of seagulls?

According to Wronski humans need to change their behaviour rather than treat gulls as the enemy: “People should avoid feeding them, secure rubbish and food waste, protect likely nesting sites before birds settle, and avoid eating outside.

“Simply removing gulls or blocking one food source usually shifts the problem elsewhere.

Humans need to look at themselves before criticising other species, he argues. “We’ve become very used to being the dominant species in urban environments, so when wildlife begins competing with us for space or food, it can feel surprising or even confrontational. Gulls are a reminder that cities are ecosystems too, shared with many other species that are capable of adapting to human-made environments.

“By reducing easy food sources, managing waste effectively, and making buildings less attractive for nesting, we can reduce conflict without blaming the birds for behaving exactly as a highly intelligent, adaptable species would.

“Ultimately, coexistence is likely to be more effective—and more sustainable—than viewing gulls as the problem.”