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27: Zoologist Ash Campbell, Kleptoparasitism, and Australia's Best Animal

Let's Learn Everything!

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Whether or Not to Snatch Your Herring Chips?

Researchers at the University of Exeter measured the time it took herring gulls to approach and touch a transparent bag of chips. Researchers targeted 74 individual gulls for the experiment but they could only base their analysis on gulls that fully completed the study trials by actually approaching and touching the chips when experimenters were looking away. So these results indicate that herred gulls are capable of gaze recognition. And they have an aversion to the human gaze. Which means that if you want to stop a gull from stealing your chips, it might be enough to just make them real uncomfortable with way too much eye contact.

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