为什么海鸥总喜欢“去码头整点薯条”?
在海边吃过快餐的人,大多都曾受到过海鸥的“骚扰”。有时候,上一秒你的薯条还在你身边,下一秒,它们就被海鸥抢走。
Hannah Huxford encountered the fry-nabbing gull in Bridlington, a coastal town on the Yorkshire coast. Huxford snapped the well-timed photo on her iPhone in 2011; it went viral soon after. A decade later, the fry-stealing gull is appearing on billboards, as part of an advertising campaign for Google.
《英国皇家学会开放科学》杂志曾在2020年发表的一项研究表明,如果在海鸥面前放两个物品,一个是人类动过的,一个是人类没动过的,那些被人动过的东西对海鸥来说更有吸引力。
Researchers recently discovered that food may actually become more attractive to gulls when the birds observe humans handling it first, according to a 2020 study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
Because the birds seem to be attracted to food items that they've watched humans touch, another of the study's authors, says that it's even more important to properly throw food waste and snack wrappers in the trash. "Our findings suggest that gulls are more likely to approach food that they have seen people drop or put down, so they may associate areas where people are eating with an easy meal," Dr. Laura Kelley said.
图片来源:GETTY IMAGES
The scientists approached 74 herring gulls in coastal towns in Cornwall, tempting them with weighted bags of fried potatoes. Only 19 gulls were curious or hungry enough to linger, allowing the scientists to place the bag on the ground and retreat a short distance away, waiting in a crouched position to see if a gull would approach.
科学家正在对海鸥进行实验
Their experiments demonstrated that gulls were more cautious about approaching a tempting treat if there was a person nearby who was watching them closely. However, the scientists also found that far fewer of the birds than expected showed interest in investigating the food at all when being stared at.
In fact, people may be able to protect their lunches from gulls by avoiding areas where the birds tend to gather and keeping a closer eye on their meals, she added.
"Gulls have a bad reputation but, like all animals, they are just trying to survive," Goumas said. "We can try to alleviate the conflict we have with them by making changes in our own behavior."
编辑:陈月华
实习生:胡湛滢
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