Angry birds: Study to investigate whether junk food is making Scotland's seagulls increasingly aggressive

A FIFE academic says feasting on junk food may be making Scotland’s seagulls increasingly aggressive.

Rebecca Lakin, a PhD student at St Andrews University, is researching how living in urban environments has an effect on young gulls across Aberdeen.

She hopes her study into the effect of unhealthy food on gulls may change perceptions of our ‘misunderstood’ feathered friends.

The project will compare diets between the chips and ice cream of urban gulls to the traditional marine menu of fish and clams of their island cousins.

Her research will explore how food digested by gulls will impact them later in life.

The results from the project will give further insight into why Aberdeen’s gulls can be so aggressive.

Aberdeen’s ‘increasingly aggressive’ gulls eating too much unhealthy food

Miss Lakin will be focusing on herring gulls and the lesser black-backed variety.

“They’re well known for stealing people’s food and they’re noisy and smelly,” she said.

“Day to day people just don’t have a good relationship with them.

“One of the reasons they are able to take advantage of good nest sites and human food is because they are quite clever.”

Aggression in city gulls often takes place when parents are defending their chicks or when young gulls are facing a shortage of food.

Both instances lead to food being stolen or the intimidating “swooping” action of the birds. Miss Lakin will be splitting her time between Aberdeen and the Isle of May to conduct research.