Painting Eyes On Chip Boxes Seems To Stop Seagulls Eating Them

Technically, seagulls are not a bird of prey. But try telling that to the snacking tourists on my nearest beach; they start scanning the skies for chip predators, ducking for cover like voles facing the claws of a kestrel. 

Some research has found that no matter what lifestyle they lead, seagulls seem programmed to dive-bomb at boxes of fish and chips.

But a new study might have found a surprising answer: painting eyes on chop boxes. 

Why does that help?

According to a paper published in Ecology and Evolution, “gulls were slower to approach and less likely to peck a takeaway food box with eye-like stimuli compared to a box without eyes”. 

The researchers measured how often herring gulls approached boxes with eyes painted on them with their approach to plain boxes. They were slower to approach the more watchful-seeming containers and pecked them less often.

Overall, the step reduced thefts by as much as 50%. And that reduction remained even after the seagulls had been exposed to takeaway eye boxes multiple times. 

Lots of animals are put off by the presence of eye-like markings, the study added.

Previously, the researchers wrote, a similar approach has proven successful in keeping predators from assaulting cattle, preventing birds from gathering in airports, and ensuring seabirds stop foraging near fishing nets.

However, the paper cautioned that responses to the eyes were “highly individual”; not all species of gull may react the same way, and even among herring gulls, about half didn’t seem to care about the change at all.

What else could help? 

The University of Exeter has previously found that shouting at seagulls could keep them away from your chips. 

And staring at them might work, too (they really don’t seem to like eyes).

Depending on how seriously you take your beachside fish and chips, you could try a painted box, yelling, and intense eye contact trio...