Herring gulls respond to human gaze in urban and rural settlements
Published in Animal Behaviour, Volume 168, pp. 83-88, 2020
Recommended citation: Goumas, M., Collins, T. R., Fordham, L., Kelley, L. A., & Boogert, N. J. (2020). "Herring gulls respond to human gaze in urban and rural settlements." Animal Behaviour, 168, 83-88. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000334722030244X
Human populations and urban settlements are expanding, and as this happens wild animals are increasingly exposed to humans. How are humans — and human urban locations — affecting culturally relevant wild species, and how do animals change their behaviour to adapt?
We found that herring gulls living in built-up areas differ greatly in their wariness of humans. Testing whether age and urbanisation affected gulls’ aversion to human gaze, we found urban herring gulls could be approached more closely than their rural counterparts, but gulls in both urban and rural areas fled sooner when a person was looking at them — suggesting gulls may not need extensive exposure to humans to be wary of eye contact.
Recommended citation: Goumas, M., Collins, T. R., Fordham, L., Kelley, L. A., & Boogert, N. J. (2020). “Herring gulls respond to human gaze in urban and rural settlements.” Animal Behaviour, 168, 83-88.