Try to get rid of noisy gulls and food thieves are missing the point – it is humans who are pests | Sophie Pavelle
AThis year's Cannes Film Festival, some unexpected hires joined the security details of Luxury Hotel The Majestic. They were not dressed in Kevlar but in deep chestnut plumage, with wingspans up to four feet, greenhouses for toes and ebony spokes with meat. The new recruits were Harris Hawks and their mission was clear: the stars of the aerial threat of the Goélands daring to photobombe or snatch flight.
This can look like an extreme solution to a mild problem – after all, most of us have not lost sandwiches for the fainting of the beaks and do not come out relatively unscathed? But as these notorious food pirates are growing in increasing number, cities around the world are increasingly confronted in the way of managing them. The hiring of falcons of the local hawker Christophe Puzin was the response of the majestic to slow down the incidents linked to the Goélands (such as the situation of Viape in 2011 by Sophie Marceau). But in metropolises like New York, Rome, Amsterdam and London, the Goélands are also considered a threat, because they occupy a permanent residence on urban displays.
Goélands seem to be stronger than ever, which facilitates the forgetting of their status as sea birds in crisis. All the most than 50 global seagull species are victims of fragmenting habitats under contradictory marine policy measures, a devastating avian flu and even brain damage and organ rupture resulting from plastic ingestion. In the United Kingdom, this torrent of problems made Many species of declining seagull.
The roofs without predators have drawn them from the waves since the 1940s and, in general, the Goéland seed disperses. The lamp posts have replaced the cliffs, the buildings are islands, the discharge is the rocky shore. A study revealed that gulls can recognize human routines, their presence around schools tripling during meals. Their adaptation – as annoying as it can be for us – motivated their survival. Maybe recognizing it could help us live alongside him.
As we have no license to capture or kill these birds, the introduction of Hawks as natural control agents of the seagull is a method of regulating human interaction / Goéland. Some advice has produced awareness campaigns in Gull, encouraging residents to report nesting and not to feed them. Others in the installation of physical barriers, such as rays and points, to discourage the rest sites of the Goélands. These measures are expensive for local authorities and their effectiveness is not conclusive. Certain advice, such as Carlisle, opt for a more secret approach, threatening the gulls more slowly in the form of Falcon type kites. In Exeter, Deliveroo tested “repellents” audio tracks, the broadcast recorded Falcon cries and GLUL distress calls to dissuade them. Researchers from the University of Exeter have also studied Advantage of maintaining visual contact With a seagull, making them think twice before the flight of food.
But such a range of anti-grusting options perpetuates the condescending story of these animals as parasites. The fact that the gulls thrive in cities underline our own ecological failures as a company. World household waste is developing quickly, most of which are thrown into discharges, where it is allowed to rot, releasing large amounts of methane – a greenhouse gas 80 times More harmful than carbon dioxide for 20 years after its release. We do not give so much to gulls an opinion of expulsion from the ocean that we beg them to come inside the land, nourishing their instinct to dive, tear and break around us – a day of trash at the same time.
So what are urban guelands, if not a threat? Perhaps, in Cannes, they are a message of timing. The film festival takes place in May, during Seagull reproduction season (April to July). This is a period when the gulls are noisy and chaotic, their defensive dynamic during hatching and flight; And When food is visibleWe bait them with easy choices. With broods to protect, reflexes are increased.
It is easy to confuse the seasonal survival of Gulls with behavior all year round. On the wilder shores, these increased activity periods would take place unnoticed. But we have modified the ecological niches to make cities too tempting, distorting the instinct of species trying to adapt to acts of imagination and resilience.
As long -term social species that have mastered adaptation exploits, the Goélands have a lot to teach us. And as they adapt to urban habitats, we must also learn to live alongside them. This offers us a chance to change history, to shape the future of shared urban spaces. The spaces where the organizers of the festival align themselves with the calendar of nature and the rhythms of life are respected. Spaces where waste is not only managed, but redesigned. Spaces where human impact is studied with intention, not ignorance. Spaces that would allow our relationship with the savage to mature so deep, conflicts would become obsolete.
