Inter-species stimulus enhancement: herring gulls (Larus argentatus) mimic human food choice during foraging.

ABSTRACT: Herring gulls (Larus argentatus) are one of few species that thrive in anthropogenic landscapes, and their familiarity with people makes them an excellent target for studies of inter-species social cognition. Urban gulls pay attention to human behaviour in food-related contexts and, thus, we set out to investigate whether such cues can influence a gull's attention to and choice of potential food items in their environment. Herring gulls were given free choice of two differently coloured anthropogenic food items in the presence of a demonstrator, who was either sitting still or eating food from an item that matched one of the presented ones. We found that a demonstrator eating significantly increased the likelihood of a gull pecking one of the presented items. Furthermore, 95% of pec

SUBMITTER: Feist F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10206476 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature