The Best Guide for the Portsmouth Area

Aggressive gulls

"The change in behaviour and growing numbers of 'aggressive' seagulls is also an upcoming urban/coastal issue." This is a quote from an e-mail I received this week. A day later, I spotted the following notice at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Southsea: "Please do not feed the birds as they are becoming a nuisance."

The Blue Reef is right. The availability of food determines an animal's behaviour to a large degree. Wildlife feeding by humans strongly influences wildlife behaviour. We humans - feeding the birds - are the likely cause of the change in behaviour in these seagulls.

Below, I will share with you some personal guidance I received about dealing with wild birds followed by the main points from a quick study I carried out on the topic in 2003.

In the mid 1990s, I used to volunteer with world-renown and well respected wild-bird rehabilitator Lee Fox in Florida, where I was living at the time. One of the things she impressed on all volunteers was to keep our distance from the birds, not talk to the birds or try to comfort the birds. We were told not to do anything that would make the birds get used to humans.

Lee Fox explained to us why this was so important. What one person experiences as fun and cute, can be a nuisance or downright scary to another. Birds that are used to receiving food and friendly attention from some people will likely expect the same friendly attitude from other people and for instance "fly at them".

That does not only hold for birds. While living in Florida, I saw people feed cute baby alligators in the park more than once. The problem is that when these alligators grow up and become big and ugly and scary, they may still want to approach humans and expect handouts, as they have been taught as youngsters. Unfortunately, those humans no longer think this is cute.

However, feeding wild birds can also be a tourist attraction and be important for the economy, for example in Florida, where feeding pelicans is quite popular. Humans benefit from such interactions, as they experience bird-feeding as a pleasant activity.

A few years ago, I therefore carried out a literature study on the topic of wildlife feeding. Below are the main points from that study, and as you will notice, almost all of them are negative and increased aggression is included.

• The animals may no longer need to forage. Their range may become smaller and the animals may spend more time on other activities instead of on foraging.

• As a result, migration patterns may change and migration may even cease completely. There may be increased breeding, which can result in population growth, possibly beyond what their habitat can sustain. Feeding has been shown to impact reproduction in birds (earlier egg-laying and first egg-laying at a younger age).

• Animals that receive food from humans may lose their foraging skills and, as a result, become dependent on handouts from humans, which increases the chance that they will starve. (This does not always happen, however.)

• Offspring may no longer be able to learn foraging skills from the older animals.

• Wildlife feeding can result in (increased) aggressive behaviour. The animals may show increased aggression within their own species, but also toward human beings. This increased aggression is partly related to the increased species concentration invoked by feeding. (Feeding birds draws more birds.)

• A very serious consequence is that the animals may lose their natural wariness of mankind. This results in a range of negative effects, such as animals being hit by cars, and animals being subjected to various forms of vandalism.

• Another very serious consequence is that the animals' health can deteriorate as a result of feeding.

• Feeding attracts not only more animals of the same species, but also other species. Both effects facilitate the spreading of diseases.
• Fed animals can suffer from contact with human pathogens.
• Fed wildlife may become ill as a result of the poor quality of the offered food. The food may lack vital nutrients or may even be totally inappropriate.
• Wildlife feeding can result in the transmission of diseases to pets, and occasionally to humans. Rabies is a particularly harmful case. The risk that humans contract rabies from animals tends to be exaggerated. However, due to this perceived risk, feeding wildlife may lead to the destruction of animals that would otherwise have survived.

• Urban bird populations often contain fewer species and generally do not resemble the communities of the surrounding (less urbanized) areas. Species richness and species turnover are lower in urban parks that have more visitors; human disturbance clearly plays a role. Some researchers reported that "Human disturbance has the same effect as predator disturbance".

• Feeding of endangered species can help support that species in some cases.
  

Sources:

Fernández-Juricic E. and Jokimäki J. (2001) A habitat island approach to conserving birds in urban landscapes: case studies from southern and northern Europe. Biodiversity and Conservation, 10, 2023-2043.

Orams M.B. (2002) Feeding wildlife as a tourism attraction: a review of issues and impacts. Tourism Management, 23, 281-293.

Feeding Wildlife...Food for Thought. SCWDS Briefs, April 1997, 13.1 (http://www.uga.edu/scwds/)

Additional literature:

Burger J. and Gochfeld M. (2001) Effect of Human Presence on Foraging Behavior of Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) in Nebraska. Bird Behavior, 14(2), 81-87.

Gill J.A., Sutherland W.J. and Watkinson A.R. (1996) A method to quantify the effects of human disturbance on animal populations. Journal of Applied Ecology, 33, 786-792.

Jokimäki J., Clergeau P. and Kaisanlahti-Jokimäki M.-L. (2002) Winter bird communities in urban habitats: a comparative study between central and northern Europe. Journal of Biogeography, 29(1), 69-79.

 (No, there was not a great deal of literature on the topic at the time.)

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PS
For those of you who feel strongly about the rabies issue and wonder if I may be taking it too lightly, I add the following note. I was bitten by a bat in what happened to be a rabies quarantine region (in Florida), in the 1990s. The bat had been hit by a car and was stunned. I picked it up from the middle of the road so that it would not get run over by the next car. The animal bit my hand, and punctured the skin. Although the risk for my health was quite small, I was still advised to have the rabies vaccine. Rabies is a serious disease, after all. The vaccinations were a long series of shots, had strong side effects, and cost me a great deal of money.

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