Behavioral experts tested their method in Cornwall, a popular coastal region in the southwest of England. There they observed 61 seagulls at nine different locations.
On a strategically placed bag of chips, they played three types of audio recordings as soon as a seagull approached: a male voice shouting loudly “No! Get away! This is my food,” the same sentence in normal speaking tone, and the whistle of a robin.
Deter by shouting
The results were striking. Nearly half of the seagulls who heard the screams flew away within a minute. The volume of the shouting and talking voices was identical, indicating that the birds were not responding to the loudness, but to the sound and intensity of the message.
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“We found that urban seagulls were more alert and less likely to pick food when we exposed them to a male voice, whether it was talking or shouting,” Neeltje Boogert of the Center for Ecology and Conservation, from the Netherlands, told The Independent.
The conclusion is simple but practical: if you want to protect your food from rude seagulls, you can scare them off by talking, but according to the research, shouting works considerably better.