Why do seagulls steal our food?

No, the birds that snatch your fries at the beach aren’t seagulls—they’re actually gulls.

Larger and more opportunistic, gulls practice what’s known as “kleptoparasitism,” a strategy that involves stealing others’ food to conserve energy: after all, snatching a sandwich requires far less effort than catching a fish.

These urban predators leave nothing to chance. Just watch them: they don’t just spot food sources—they study you. Scientific research conducted at the University of Exeter reveals that herring gulls prefer to target food they’ve seen us handling, while assessing our level of attention. In fact, a seagull will be much more hesitant to approach and strike if you look it straight in the eye.

However, this boldness is not universal: only a minority of individuals—those who are particularly daring or experienced—dare to brave human proximity. To avoid arousing their interest, the best course of action is, of course, to keep your meals well covered and never feed them, so as not to encourage this “bad” habit.