黑脊鷗在歐洲的市區很常見,牠們的飲食非常廣,常會食用人類食物。為了解牠們如何選擇食物,研究人員將兩包不同顏色的薯片放在地上,而研究人員拿著另一包站在幾米遠的地方。將近 95% 的海鷗會選擇啄食與研究人員手中顏色相同的薯片。 這表示這些海鷗能夠觀察其他生物的所選擇的食物,從而決定自己可以食用的。
Herring gulls are common in modern urban areas in Europe, and they have very flexible diet including feeding on human food. To find more about how they select their food, researchers placed two different color packets of chips on the ground. The researcher stand few meters away with a packet of chips in hand, and nearly 95% of the gulls pecked at the packet that matches the color of the one in the researcher’s hand. This shows that these gulls were able to observe the food choices of others to decide what to feed on.