Bird boffins have warned of a surge in the number of aggressive seagulls this Summer
‘sup?
This morning/afternoon.
Ireland saw a 50% jump in callouts regarding gulls and other pest birds so far this year.
Dublin accounts for over 60% of total callouts for seagulls and other pest birds followed by Wicklow (16%) and Kilkenny (16%) so far this year.
Pest control experts Rentokil is urging people to be wary of them when eating outdoors, in particular, once outdoor dining returns in June, as this is when they are most likely to harass or try to steal food from members of the public and raid waste bins.
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They need to cull the Gulls! They really do begin to go after other species young like baby ducks, when the numbers get out of control. As well as annoying and harassing people.
There are an ever increasing number of nesting seagulls in my housing estate and every year they become more and more vicious. They attack cats, dogs, small children every year from May onwards, anything they perceive as an attack to their young. Which is their nature, fair enough, but when they’ve become so aggressive that you can’t let the kids play outside, something needs to be done.
Also, they’re a noisy bunch of lads. Every morning from 3.30am through to 6am we get a full symphony of gulls crying outside the window.
Jesus! That sounds rough. They are out of control. The more Seagulls thrive, the more noise they make, because like most animals they are territorial. Bigger numbers means more competition between males for female attention and procreation, so it just gets worse and worse until authorities intervene. If young children are getting attacked it certainly is time to step in. They are scavengers and would peck at anything.
im not having it. I’ve lived in Dublin all my life and the most I’ve ever seen them do is swoop for food. I think people wanting to wipe out swathes of birds is disgusting. Just because they’re “annoying” .. they were here first. Live with it. Being annoyed, is no reason to end the lives of lots of animals. There are loads of cats and seagulls in my estate and they never attacked the cats. Ever. I think your making up stuff to support your desire to wipe them out. It’s probably the noise of them in the morning that has you rattled. But as I said, they are here first. Live somewhere else if you don’t like them. they’re just birds.
Human behaviour has made them worse and it’s our responsibility to manage that behaviour. We’ve had kids and older folks attacked where I live, proper scars left on them too, just for passing close to an unseen nest or eating outside.
In truth, people were here first. The birds have moved from the coast due to reduced levels of fishing. They’re following the food supply. Telling someone to move house if their children or parents are threatened when they go outside might be the most stupid thing I’ve read today.
“Human behaviour has made them worse and it’s our responsibility to manage that behaviour.” .. by killing them?? Whatever problems people are having with them, it’s not our place to wipe them out. ridiculous to call for the killing of animals. horrible
are you a vegetarian ?
You’ve managed to project a lot of (incorrect) assumptions onto my comment, doc. And in fact, I’m pretty sure we had the same disagreement last year.
But when my kid is being attacked for sitting in the back garden minding her own fupping business and ends up needing stitches, as happened last summer, after a seagull swooped down onto her head then yeah, I’m gonna want something done about it. My children should be safe to sit in their own back garden.
But you know what? Good for you that you’ve never directly had to deal with seagulls as a pest problem. It sort of makes your input on this entirely redundant.
Oof! Smashing takedown, in fairness.
its not teenagers coming over attacking your child. if it was, you’d have a point. it’s unfortunate that that happened, but to kill 100s of birds in response is a very heavy handed response. utterly horrible and cruel.
its not humans attacking your child. if it was, you’d have a point. it’s unfortunate that that happened, but to kill 100s of birds in response is a very heavy handed response. utterly horrible and cruel.
Come talk to me when it’s your kids. Otherwise, you’re talking plop, frankly, and not worth engaging with beyond this.
Also if you can point out where I advocate for killing a few hundred or so birds, that’d be great.
that’s what “culling” is.. killing a large amount of these birds. as for it being my kids or not, its irrelevant who’s kid it is. if one thing happened to my kid, I don’t change the landscape for everyone else. cop on, the world is bigger than you and its bigger than your kid. deal with it.
“I myself have never been murdered, so it’s ridiculous to punish murderers”
swing and a miss, Papi. My point is simply; don’t kill hundreds of animals because one of them bit someone.
But it’s not just one a single instance, as the article explains. Otherwise you’d have a good point.
and my point is. ya can’t just go and kill a bunch of birds because we clash with them the odd time. they aren’t humans, this is the world we live in, and even the article says our actions has set the actions in motion for this. they have a right to be here, and a right to life. its not up to us to go massacring them. we share the world with nature, learn to live with it without wanting to kills swathes of it.
Nature is healing.
show me the absolute wimps who are ringing the authorities over seagulls? weak cowards one and all. You can’t kill 100s of birds because they’re “annoying” for fupp sake. Unreal.
They’ve gone dark, Doctor, they’re not the gulls you remember from your childhood.
Starting to think Dr. fart may in fact, be a seagull.
seagulls – where they go one, they go all.
there’s loads of seagulls on my street and they are the gulls I remember from my childhood.
I recall them being gentler and less psychopathic.
I know my psycho gulls and the Star aside, maybe the Star included, we do have a problem. A gull, total headbanger, fronted up to me last summer. A seagull squared up looking for a fight. I couldn’t believe it was happening in a city centre park. I’m not small and this fecker came up above my waist. I had to use my wits to get out of the situation, one in which, if I was a small child could have been absolutely terrifying and dangerous. In France they put the psycho lady gulls on the pill. Which leads to a less aggressive situation.
In my memory they hung out, as the name suggests, by the sea. They usedn’t venture into Grafton St and Stephen’s Green back then. What next? Seagulls in Mullingar.
Almost every street crime you ever read about is a teenager, and its “ah they’re only pups” .. one seagulls steals an ice cream and people wanna wipe out the species.
the “subject” comes up every summer. I can’t get over the amount of people who want to kill god knows how many seagulls, because they’re “annoying” .. it really does my head in.
Why do seagulls have wings?
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To get to the dump before [insert username here]