A flock of seagulls eating scraps from an outdoor table at a restaurant.

By Chris Spiker From Daily Voice

If you're trying to keep your food away from seagulls at the beach, don't be so polite.

Researchers from the University of Exeter found that shouting at gulls is far more effective at making them leave than calmly speaking to them. The British study was published in the journal Biology Letters on Wednesday, Nov. 12.

The study looked at how 61 wild herring gulls on England's southern coast reacted in February and March to two recordings of men saying or shouting, "No! Stay away! That’s my food, that's my pasty!" The human noises were also compared to audio of robin birds singing.

While all three sounds were played at the same volume, the men's shouting tone scared the gulls more often.

"Gulls exposed to the shouting treatment flew away, whereas the gulls exposed to the speaking treatment walked away," the researchers wrote. "These findings demonstrate that gulls perceive a man shouting to be a greater threat than a man speaking."

A seagull eating human food.

A seagull eating human food.

Unsplash - Chelsey Faucher

The findings build on a 2023 study from the University of Sussex showing that seagulls use human behavior cues when targeting food. Those researchers found that the shorebirds were 95% more likely to peck at food that matched the color of the item a person was eating.

The Exeter researchers said they conducted their study because seagulls are a more common nuisance in coastal communities, relying on human food as cities expand.

"This increases the number of human-gull interactions, with negative consequences for both human quality of life and gull breeding success, such as compromised chick nutrition," the researchers wrote. "It is therefore important to deter gulls from approaching anthropogenic food sources, and our findings show that male human vocalizations, and shouting in particular, may help to mitigate human-gull conflict over human food."

Ocean City, New Jersey, is one US beach community that takes a different approach to scaring off seagulls. Since 2020, the Jersey Shore city has used falcons to keep gulls from snatching breakfast leftovers in the morning between April and October.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 makes it illegal under federal law to intentionally kill, injure, or capture a seagull without a permit.