When people ask you what your favourite animal is, they definitely aren’t expecting to hear the word seagull; but that is exactly what my favourite animal is. The seagull is an ethereal being, with wonderful powers of persuasion and a cunning attitude. From their snow white and charcoal grey feathers, to the tiny satanic eyes that rest above their lusciously red beaks, there is nothing quite as soothing to my soul as the long echoing call of a gull flying above me. The seagull is a bird that everyone should not only learn to love, but also strive to protect. Incredible specimens of wit and intelligence, seagulls have strategically evolved to become the perfect bird, that’s right, perfect. At least perfect in my own, somewhat biased, loving perspective of them.
I myself once hated seagulls and their pesky determination to steal my food at the beach. However, over the last few formative years at university, as I found myself, I realised I’d begun to find seagulls in all their light and glory, too. Unfortunately; there aren’t that many of them to love –as the population of seagulls in this country are hitting all-time lows, and are even being classified as endangered, almost alongside our Kiwi and Kakapo (who are critically endangered and in urgent need for protection)! Don’t believe me? Hit up the Department of Conservation and talk to them about it – they recently (sometime in 2014) published a report which said that the black billed seagull population numbers are so low that they have been labelled as “nationally critical” –a privilege we reserve only for our rarest birds. Back when our parents were shit gurgling soul destroyers, A.K.A ‘youngens’; the seagull was nowhere near as special as it is today.
They really were a pest back then, with numbers of up to two hundred thousand along the coastlines battering people for a bite to eat. Today, they are really quite a special presence among our coast lines, and it is a harsh reality we need to face up to. In 1977, the number of black billed seagulls was around 200,000, but now, they are resting at a scarily low rate of anywhere from 60,000 to 70,000. For the red billed seagull, the original number is not known but their current population is resting at approximately 100,000 and that is expected to decline by 70 percent in the next thirty years. 70 PERCENT!?! Whether you like them or not the reduction rates predicted in their density is pretty unfair, and scary! The threat of animals as well as a lack of sustainable and safe environments among larger coastline and cities is contributing factors, but surprisingly people are the biggest threat to the seagull’s survival. It is something more New Zealanders should think about; they may not be the most glamourous of birds, but to me they play a crucial role in the New Zealand summer (even if it is a pesky one).
The red billed seagull, the ones that often wander through campus with their cute little beady-eyed glare, were declared as a nationally vulnerable species – sharing the status with the yellow eyed penguin – in 2008 after a series of substantial population declines around the country, particularly in Kaikoura (good one folks). As annoying as it might seem the distinctly kiwi experience of having your chips nicked by devil eyed “sky rats” might not even be a thing in the future. Is an Aotearoa without the iconic beach bird a place we really want to live in? As far as I’m concerned, definitely not! A New Zealand without the seagull is a world without water! Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but still—we should be doing more as a nation to preserve the birds. Thankfully for all of us in Otago, the declining number of seagulls doesn’t appear to be so much of a problem.
Dunedin ornithologist Lyndon Perriman and marine science researcher at the University of Otago, Dr Chris Lalas published an article in a 2013 issue of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand which highlighted the fact that although the specialised breeding grounds in the south east region of the south island were meeting great efforts at revitalising the population of the birds, with their numbers in the area almost tripling since 1992, the threat to the red billed seagulls on a national It turns out our NZ seagulls should be treated with more respect than flying screaming rat-demons. ISSUE 17 scale was still a big problem. It also mentioned that the “decreases in red-billed gull nest numbers and breeding success have been reported and attributed to human disturbance…” as well as the “…predation of eggs, chicks and adults by introduced mammals”, like cats and rats. Seagulls are prevalent all around the world, and they aren’t always so dangerously underpopulated, but; ours are. The only endemic gull to New Zealand – the Black Billed Seagull – is on the brink of disappearing, and when people find out I’m rather annoyed that they seem to be so happy about it.
Yes it might just be a silly beach pest in your eyes, but it is unique to our wonderfully beautiful and picturesque landscape, and I think we should be doing everything in our power to keep them a part of it. Admittedly I have no idea what that would entail, or any advice to give you on the issue. Perhaps we should start with not running them over with our cars, and not being afraid to give them the last little bits of our food when we are eating in public? They are cute as all heck and if you feed them they might just show you a little tenderness and love.
Aside from their scarily low population (in New Zealand at least) seagulls are very intelligent, territorial birds, and have evolved in the most interesting way! Being birds of prey, they are incredibly territorial, and can do a hell of a lot of damage to other birds and animals, even other gulls that share their mating territory – don’t get caught in the middle of a breeding ground, you may never live to tell the tale. What makes their evolution just so exquisite is that being so predatory, yet sharing such a small breeding ground with other gulls; they developed distinctively unique social signals which help to reduce violence and fighting in their colonies. Seagulls apply these signals and plan out subdivision-like areas within breeding colonies that they protect with their lives, they will peck to death other gulls to protect their territory. The gulls don’t just do that every year though, like choosing a mate, they settle at the same patch of land in the colony they did they year prior; like a true creature of habit. Every year when the new breeding season begins, and the gulls migrate to their love nests, they wander around – scouring the area for perfect places to make their nests. Unfortunately, as they are such territorial creatures, they must constantly defend their nests.
Like us humanoid thing-a-ma-bobs, seagulls use their words to try and resolve problems before resorting to violent and dramatic means of conflict resolution. Those loud piercing calls aren’t just made to annoy you on your morning or evening commutes, they are a language – one that has evolved over hundreds of years to allow them to communicate specific pieces of information to one another. The long, wailing cry you hear at the beach (kind of like a high pitched baby seal) is a threat made to those trespassing on their territory. Seagulls also have another territorial call, which they use to call in reinforcement in their arguments – they literally request backup. It sounds kind of like a mutated and warped meow without the tonal shifts, and it is called a mew.
Their skills at defusing potentially violent situations in the baby making homes don’t end there though, as seagulls also developed visual signs of intimidation, that they demonstrate through posture and varying their size. The upright posture; where gulls stretch their necks tall, and straight, and move with caution, and legs poised slightly to the side signifies to others in their colony that they’re ready to attack, and even more aggressive yet is their charging stance – where they stretch out the wings, and appear as giant, valiant beasts of honour and charge towards another, sending their opponents a strong warning of extreme action about to take place. Turns out that when I was joking about them running around, bullying each other and scaring them away from whatever they were herding around was very true – who’d have thought?
I don’t just love them for their impeccable evolution, or their cute appearance, I also love them because they wreak HAVOC if they feel like stirring the pot a little bit. Steve Higgins, a 52 year old man from Yorkshire, was enjoying his summer holiday, visiting his mother in Devon. He decided it would be a nice idea to enjoy an ice cream by the beach (a move which local residents realised was both simultaneously brave and stupid). This ostensibly innocent act of pleasure lead to utter turmoil and terror as a swarm of my beloved seagulls attacked him, as they tried to take his ice cream. Terrified; Higgins abandoned his ice cream and ran to his car seeking safety and refuge from the demonic birdies. Seconds later he was rudely issued an £80 fine, the equivalent to a whopping $170 New Zealand dollars, for littering – as he had let his ice cream fall to the sidewalk, missing the garbage bin.
Seagulls, as beautiful and evolutionarily exquisite as they can be are also very dumb and silly wonders, in the Bay of Plenty a large gull was blamed for knocking down power lines and causing power outages at the beginning of last year, and in November last year a seagull hit power lines so hard it caused a fire in the Marlborough region which firefighters said could have been extremely hard to contain if they didn’t get to it when they did.
I understand that seagulls are definitely not perfect, but they are birds that have had to adjust to the influx of humans destroying their habitats and posing risks to their safety and survival – so we should at least try and show them a little bit of compassion. These glorious little creatures make a wee sprinkle of joy and wonder pump through my body when I see them. I could remind you that they recognise and have a soft spot of fondness for some people; like the kind man who feeds them regularly at nine thirty in the morning near Queens Gardens. I could remind you that when they interact as a pack they are absolutely HILARIOUS to observe, and may possibly even leave you in stitches. I could heavily go into the fact that I think they are the most misunderstood creatures of the sky, the most underrated, set aside, and misrepresented souls this planet has seen. But I won’t. Chances are you either like them, or you don’t. I certainly hope that whether or not you dislike them still, you can acknowledge their infallible evolution and amazing biological behaviours that allow them to live such intriguing and interesting lives, and hope that you remember these when you next see one. Maybe, just maybe, if you do, you’ll find that they can be pretty darn neat.
An Ode to My Friend Jeffery:
Snow white feathers,
Shifting grey suns,
Strong, protective birds in all types of weather,
Who when I watch I have fun,
Don’t listen when they boo you,
Don’t hide when they chase you away,
Just know that I love you, really, I do;
I loved you then, I’ll love you now, and of course –
I love you today.