Seagulls

Alex Re (00:00): Hello, welcome to On Wildlife. I'm your host Alex Re. On this podcast, we bring the wild to you. We take you on a journey into the life of a different animal every week, and I guarantee you, you're going to come out of here knowing more about your favorite animal than you did before. If you live near the coast, you've probably had run-ins with the animal that I'm going to be talking about today. They may have even tried to steal your food and they have a call that you can recognize from a mile away, even though you might find them annoying. They're really amazing birds, so make sure you pack a towel because we're heading to the beaches of the world to talk about seagulls.

(00:57): Seagulls are a type of seabird and there are about 50 different species of them around the world. While we usually call them seagulls, they used to be referred to just as Gus, and this was actually the more correct term because not all seagulls live by the sea. A much older name for gulls is muse stemming from a multitude of languages including German, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Norwegian, and French seagulls are a part of the family Laday, which is also composed of turns, skimmers, and kitty wakes. Seagulls species can range in size from 11 and a half inches to 30 inches in length and weigh between a quarter of a pound and almost four pounds. It's always amazing to me how large birds can be and still remain so light. It's beneficial to be light when you need to fly, and that's why birds have hollow bones with air sacks in them and their wingspans can get pretty big too.

(01:55): One species of goal called the California goal measures 21 inches in length and it has a wingspan of four and a half feet. Seagulls are extremely intelligent birds that exhibit some cool behaviors, which we'll dive into later on in the episode, and they usually live in coastal areas and like to stay near the shores. They can be found all over the world on every continent, even Antarctica. Some species of gold will even move to deserts and other drier habitats, but that's really only for breeding purposes. Because they live so close to the water, they have some adaptations that allow them to be great swimmers. For example, they have long legs and webbed feet to propel themselves. Most seagulls have white feathers with gray or black wing tips, but some goals can be mostly black or gray too. They also have yellow beaks that are slightly hooked, and they have a small claw that sits about halfway up their lower leg. This claw is useful for roosting on high ledges because it prevents them from falling off the edge. Seagulls have been around for over 30 million years. During this time, the earth was experiencing a global extinction event. 60% of all mammals in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula went extinct and paleontologists actually use the diversity of teeth that they find in order to determine the biodiversity of the planet at different time periods. Okay, so now that I've given you some background information on seagulls, we'll talk about what they eat when we get back from the break.

(03:42): This week, I want to give a shout out to Catalina and Camilla from Connecticut. Catalina's favorite animal is a cheetah. Did you know that cheetah's, meow and pur just like house cats and Camilla's favorite animal is a unicorn slash horse. Horses can only breathe through their nose so they can't breathe through their mouths. If you want me to give you a shout out on the podcast, send an email to on wildlife dot podcast@gmail.com telling me your first name, where you're from and your favorite animal.

(04:21): Okay, now back to the episode. Seagulls are omnivores, so they eat a variety of different things. Some of the animals that they'll eat are insects, fish, rodents, small reptiles, amphibians, and carryon, which are bodies of animals that are already dead. In addition to the animals that they prey on, seagulls will eat seeds, fruit, and any leftovers they find of human meals. They've even been seen in engaging in cannibalism, eating younger seagulls when times are tough and they need protein, and researchers have found that warmer sea temperatures are leading to an increase in cannibalism among seagulls. This trend has been observed over the past decade and a 0.1 degree difference in seawater temperature led to a 10% increase in cannibalism, and it's not just seagulls. Other species that have been observed taking part in climate change related cannibalism include polar bears and lobsters. So as you can see, changing temperatures can completely change the behaviors of animals.

(05:27): Like many other birds, seagulls have great vision and this is what helps them look for prey, but something that they can do that many birds can't is move their eyes around in their sockets. Other birds need to move their entire heads in order to change where they look. They also have a great sense of smell too. They can smell food from three miles away and they need to eat about 20% of their body weight every day, and the food that they eat has to have high fat and high protein to keep their muscles strong. They've been known to return to the same place every day to look for food, but unlike some other seabirds, seagulls can't dive very deep in the water to go after their prey. Sometimes they'll just float on the surface of the water and wait for a fish to swim near them to eat it.

(06:15): Once they catch their food, they can unhinging their jaw to swallow it, and that's because they don't have teeth to chew. This makes them capable of eating large quantities of food at once. In the winter, some species of gold move inland and start eating less seafood and look more for things to eat on land, and this is the time when they're most likely to try to eat human food. Contrary to what you might think, seagulls should not be fed bread or other human food. They'll definitely eat whatever you give them without a second thought, but the food that we eat is low in nutritional value for them. Seagulls need a diet rich in nutrients and rely on both meat and plant food to stay healthy, and if they're just given human food all the time, they won't feel the need to find their own food that's better for them.

(07:03): Seagulls have adapted really well to live near the ocean because of the salt gland located above their eyes. Seagulls are among the few animals that can drink salt water to survive. The salt glands help remove excess salt from the body, much like the kidneys do. It's also referred to as the supraorbital gland, and while it removes salt from the bloodstream, this does not mean that it turns salt water into freshwater. It just helps the goals process the salt better. Other animals that have the salt glands include other marine birds like penguins, some reptiles sharks and manta rays. Seagulls are monogamous, which means that when they mate, they mate for life. Each couple reunites to breed and raise their young. During the mating season, it's very rare, but some seagulls may divorce. The mating season begins in late March or early April with the eggs being laid in the beginning of May.

(07:59): A typical clutch consists of between two and four eggs and after mating, the goals begin constructing their nests. Their nests are cup shaped and are built with twigs and grasses gathered from the environment, but they can also use feathers, rope, or even plastic nesting sites can be found on the sides of sea cliffs, dunes, islands, or other places that are hard for predators to reach. Both the male and the female incubate the eggs in early June. The eggs hatch about three weeks after they were laid. Gold chicks are completely covered in something called down after they hatch down is a type of feather that's really fine and it acts as a padding as well as insulation from the cold. The chicks have to be careful though because they can easily fall out of the nest, which is dangerous. Unfortunately, if the chicks can't make it back to the nest in time, they usually don't survive.

(08:56): They leave the nest for the first time after they're only a few days old, and young chicks are raised in nursery flocks with all other chicks, so it's kind of like they're going to school because during this stage in their life, they learn many skills that are important to their survival that help them become independent. After five or six weeks, the chicks develop their wing feathers and are able to go off on their own. Sometimes the parents will watch after them for a while even after they do this. Baby seagulls eat soft foods that have been regurgitated for them by their parents, and have you ever noticed that seagulls have a red spot on the lower part of their beak? Next time you see a seagull, check it out because it's there for a really cool purpose. Seagull chicks are actually attracted to this red spot and it causes them to peck at the spot when they peck.

(09:47): This is a cue for the adult to feed them. If they don't peck, then they don't get food. The scientist who figured this out was Nicholas Tinbergen and he won a Nobel Prize in the seventies for his research on it. Seagulls have a pretty long lifespan, and because of that, they mature at a slow rate. Some species of gold don't begin breeding until they're around four years old, and the oldest goals can live to just under 30 years. Okay, we're going to take our last break, but when we get back, we'll talk about the social structure of seagulls. Here's today's trivia question. True or false, only female mosquitoes bite. The answer is true. Female mosquitoes are the only ones that bite because they need blood in order to produce their eggs.

(11:01): Okay, welcome back. A group of seagulls can be called a colony, a squabble, a scavenging or a gullery. Seagulls live in these groups that can be made up of a few pairs or a couple thousand individuals. They have a complex system of sounds and body language that they use to communicate, and they have a distinctive squaking call that I'm sure you've heard if you've ever been to the beach in the colonies. Pairs of goals are extremely territorial when it comes to their nests and the area around their nests that they can protect can have a five meter radius to show dominance or attract mates within the colony. Seagulls will often perform aerial maneuvers and acrobatics. Seagulls can be prey for snakes, sharks, and hawks, but the chicks and eggs are more vulnerable and will be eaten by all types of animals, including raccoons and cats, and one of their best defenses against these predators is safety in numbers.

(11:59): During the breeding season, hundreds of seagulls will band together to chase away predators. In some cases, they may even drown the predator after driving them out to sea. This behavior is called mobbing. While seagull colonies are very close, they'll occasionally steal food from their neighbors. This is known as klepto parasitism. It can refer to stealing food from others of the same species or different species, and if you listen to the Firefly episode from a few weeks ago, you'll probably remember that some species of firefly do this to spiders. It usually refers to theft of food, but it can also refer to theft of other resources like materials used for building nests. Other species that engage in klepto parasitism include sperm, whales, penguins, hyenas, and species of insects. As I mentioned earlier, seagulls are an incredibly intelligent species and it can mainly be seen in the different methods that they use to get their food.

(12:59): One strategy that they use to open really tough shells is dropping them from high distances onto rocks, but here's where it really gets crazy. They've been seen using bread as bait in order to attract fish to eat, and they'll also mimic the sound of rain by tapping the ground with their feet, which in turn drives earthworms to the surface for them to munch on. After they learn a new behavior, seagulls pass this knowledge along to their offspring. This is really special because a lot of behaviors in the animal kingdom are innate, meaning that it's just in their d n A passing down information to the next generation takes a lot of intelligence. Seagulls are also easily able to adapt to changes in their environment. They've become opportunistic hunters, meaning that they'll eat things based off of what's available to them because of their vast diet.

(13:52): Seagulls have a tremendous impact on coastal food webs, even though they're considered to be a nuisance and are treated as pests in some parts of the world. They help to keep animal populations, especially insect populations in Czech, in essence, their natural pesticides which help to protect fields of crops from being devoured. Seagulls have lived around humans for many years and are one of the groups of birds that have adapted most to living side by side with us, and they're getting bolder with people because we're constantly around them. Some seagulls have been reported to be attacking pets and sometimes even humans. In a study of goal behavior, researchers found that herring goals were more likely to eat food if they saw a human pretend to eat it first. Another study found that up to 79% of the goals that they tested chose food that was first handled by humans.

(14:46): That's not really a good thing. In a study conducted by the University of Bristol, they determined that seagulls have adapted their foraging patterns to match levels of human activity in cities. Scientists found that the foraging patterns of goals around Bristol England were tied to school break schedules and whether waste centers were open or closed, but how do we stop them from eating our food? Well, like other animals, eye contact is seen as a display of dominance and maintaining eye contact with seagulls can deter them from taking your food. Sgu populations are stable and they're not currently on the list of threatened or endangered species, so because they're not endangered, we'll focus instead on organizations that help seabirds as a whole. If you want to help out seabirds, you should check out the Pacific Seabird Group, world Seabird Union and Florida Shorebird Alliance. Thank you so much for coming on this adventure with me as we explored the world of seagulls. You can find the sources that we use for this podcast and links to organizations that we reference at onwildlife.org. You can also email us with any questions at On Wildlife dot podcast@gmail.com, and you can follow us on Instagram at On Wildlife or on TikTok at wildlife. Don't forget to tune in next Wednesday for another awesome episode, and that's On Wildlife.

Jess Avellino (16:19): You've Been listening to On Wildlife with Alex Re. On Wildlife provides general educational information on various topics as a public service, which should not be construed as professional financial, real estate tax, or legal advice. These are our personal opinions only. Please refer to our full disclaimer policy on our website for full details.