Investigative reporting for the silly season.... 8)
Revealed: seagulls' favourite ice cream
Maurading seagulls that are blighting Britain's seaside resorts are starting to get picky about the kind of ice cream they are willing to steal.
By Ian Johnston and Richard Gray
Published: 9:00AM BST 23 Aug 2009
With their noisy calls and voracious appetite they are a distinctive feature of the British seaside.
But relations between humans and seagulls are becoming fraught. Holidaymakers have complained of being "mugged" by fearless seagulls stealing chips, sandwiches and ice cream.
Resorts are considering ways to curb gull populations, including the use of squadrons of falcons and hawks. One council is imposing fines up to £2,500 on people caught feeding the birds.
So The Sunday Telegraph, with apologies to more august scientific institutions, set out to test just how daring Britain's seagulls can be – and to discover which is their favourite ice cream variety.
We headed for St Ives, Cornwall, where shops display warning signs that "Seagulls like ice cream too" and traders advise: "Keep your food close and keep it low."
For our experiment we purchased 20 ices, five each of four different kinds: vanilla cones, strawberry cones, orange lollies and choc-ices on sticks. We took one or two bites of each then held it until it melted, to see whether the winged raiders would strike.
The first positive result came as our reporter was sitting on the harbour beach, cone in hand. Suddenly a herring gull flashed over his shoulder, grabbed a beakful of strawberry ice cream and swooped off.
Then came strike after strike in rapid succession, perhaps five in total, the last an attack by multiple birds which prompted our reporter to abandon the cone and beat a retreat.
A vanilla cone – with a dollop of clotted cream on top, in the local fashion – quickly attracted another gull which left a beak-shaped impression. Moments later, it was plucked whole from our reporter's hand.
In all our 20 tests led to six attacks, suggesting that an unaware tourist has a one-in-three chance of falling victim. Strawberry ice cream cones proved the most enticing, with three out of five taken. Second most popular were vanilla cones, with two out of five attacked. Only one of the choc ices was pecked at, and none of the orange lollies.
Sunbather Georgia Coops, 45, a gardener on holiday from London, reported that her son Oliver, 10, had had his ice cream stolen.
"It was a chocolate ice cream and he is convinced that they like those ones the best," she said.
"We bring this tent to the beach so the kids can eat their food in it. It's just too dangerous to sit outside and eat."
However, on the day we witnessed no injuries and the birds displayed no signs of direct aggression towards our reporter. Indeed, one bird defended him by chasing away other gulls before returning to stand quietly nearby, giving his ice cream a longing look.
This protective trait has been exploited for 10 years by Maria Chaffin, of Carbis Bay, near St Ives.
"We have had two seagulls, Simone and Garfunkel, for 10 years," she said. "We feed them so they keep the others away.
"They are very territorial and if other seagulls come on our roof, they are seen off in no uncertain terms. I think they are beautiful creatures."
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildli ... cream.html