1 May 2019

Seagulls strange behaviour

From Afternoons, 1:28 pm on 1 May 2019

We get a quite a few messages from listeners about critters, pests, and animals they've seen out and about.

One such email came through about possibly strange behaviour of seagulls. Sue Hattersley wrote:

"I was wondering if you could solve a mystery for us please. Over the summer we have noticed seagulls perched precariously in shrubs growing at the beach here in and around Westport. I think the shrubs are a type of griselinia and have orange berries. The seagulls have been eating the berries and we have never seen this before. We wondered if it was because seabirds are having trouble finding enough fish to eat"

So we've asked around for you we've got DoC's seabird expert Graeme Taylor explains what's going on with our gulls. 

Black-billed Gull yawning Lake Tekapo New Zeland.

Biosphoto / Guillaume Bouteloup

Photo: AFP