Researchers have a tactic to deter seagulls from stealing your sandwiches or fries - to stare at the birds to prevent any food . This tip comes from the University of Exeter in the UK. Researchers tested the of staring at the sea birds. They put some fries on the and checked how it took gulls to snatch the fries without a researcher looking at . They then did the same test, but with a making eye contact. The birds took an 21 seconds to approach the food when a researcher stared at them.
The researchers concluded that the human deterred the gulls. Only 26 per cent of the birds tried to take the food with the contact. Three-quarters of the birds stood and looked at the food or flew away. A researcher said: "Gulls seemed to have a bad for food-, but I saw it happen quite . When I did see it...gulls often swooped in from behind and people were oblivious. Gulls are often seen as and willing to take food from humans, so it was interesting to find that most wouldn't come near during tests."
