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Haggling over Mica compensation reaches critical and fraught stage. How counting murders of women changed the law in Italy. Daily Today Daily. Stay on top of the latest news with our daily newsletters each morning, lunchtime and evening. When the end gull reached the edge of the row it flew to the otherside to begin again. There was also a forward action, uniformly performed as they progressed closer to the clubhouse. I still feel privelidged to have seen this unique and very intelligent group activity.
I also have experienced lone gulls soaring in the sky coming from Dundee looking for fields being ploughed near Newtyle in Angus. They appear to fly back to Dundee when such a field has been found and within a short period of time many seagulls can be seen on the field. A truely very intelligent specimen of our wildlife - the humble seagull.
Many have encountered their wrath, whether it is stealing your sandwich or dive bombing you whilst walking along the beach. Being on the coast Aberdeen is inundated with rather large and confident seagulls even within the city centre. The gulls found on the shores are the European Herring gull. Although seagulls are mostly found along the coasts they have adapted to city life. These gulls are often found to be scavengers, rummaging through bins and land fill sites.
Although seagulls will predominately feed on seafood they are also capable of finding sources of food inland for example worms. Seagulls have behavioural adaptations which allow them to satisfy their carnivorous diet whilst inland.
Aberdeen being a rather rainy place, seagulls use this to their advantage and are able to imitate the rain. The movement of their feet on the grass causes vibrations which are similar to that created by rain.
The vibrations cause worms to move to the surface believing it is raining. This rhythmic beat is repeated, the gulls can then be observed scrutinising the ground waiting for their easy snack to emerge. Nikolaas Tinbergen was a Dutch ethologist and ornithologist whose work in animal behaviour earned him a Nobel Prize.
Tinbergens four questions that are asked of any animal behaviour can be applied to the observed behaviour of the seagull dance. His theory states that every behaviour has a cause, development, evolution and function. The dance is a learned trick to coax worms to the surface. Earthworms stay underground unless flooded out by rainwater. The vibrations sent into the ground resemble that of rain or an approaching mole. The seagull dance is a taught behaviour and develops with age.
The elder seagulls can be seen teaching young the padding motion on grass. The dance is therefore a learned or possibly inherited behaviour. Environmental factors play a role in the dance as it is more commonly seen in birds which have to supplement their diet or have moved inland away from the coast.
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