56 | New Scientist | 25 April 2020
The back pages Q&A
NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY/ALAMYSo, what do you do?
I’m a PhD student at the Centre for Ecology
and Conservation at the University of Exeter.
I study the behaviour of urban-living herring
gulls with a focus on their interactions with
humans. I do a lot of staring at gulls.What’s so interesting about gulls?
Herring gulls interest me because, despite a rapid
national population decline, they seem to be doing
relatively well in urban areas. A seabird that is able
to adapt to urban life is quite intriguing. They also
have a lot of distinctive behaviours and calls,
so there is a lot to observe and decipher.Gulls often get a bad press.
Are they misunderstood?
I think they are. From a gull’s perspective,
a roof is a great nesting site – they don’t know
that they won’t be welcome. They may be loud,
but they call to communicate with other gulls,
not to be annoying. And in the summer, they
protect their chicks, just like any human would
protect their children. They aren’t mind-readers,
so they can’t know you aren’t going to attack them.
And as many people do attack and kill both adults
and chicks, their defensive behaviour is hardly
unwarranted. When it comes to taking food, I see
them as being similar to an untrained dog: a big
portion of food is just too tempting to turn down.What are your best gull facts?
Gulls are long-lived birds, with some living for
decades. Herring gulls are monogamous and
usually pair for life, with both sexes incubating the
eggs and feeding the chicks. They can recognise
their mates and their chicks, but can also recognise
their neighbours. Occasionally, herring gulls will
adopt other gulls’ chicks, but more commonly,
they will defend their own chicks from intruders.What are you working on right now?
Right now, we are all on lockdown, so no one
is doing any fieldwork. I have had to change my
plans, but we are all in the same boat. I am currently
writing a paper that builds on our previous research
showing that herring gulls tend to dislike or avoid
being looked at by people. I’m also co-writing a
literature review on wild animals’ interactions
with humans and using the time inside to get
some new computer-based modelling skills.How did you end up working in this field?
After graduating from the University of Exeter
with a degree in zoology, I knew I wanted to
do research, and I was interested in studying
animal behaviour. I have always had a particular
interest in birds, and moving to a coastal town
in Cornwall meant I was suddenly close to lots
of herring gulls. Most other wild animals can’t
be approached very closely, so I thought they
would make a great subject to study. I approached
my now supervisors to ask them to supervise
me on a master’s project, which has now
turned into a PhD.What’s the best piece of advice
anyone ever gave you?
Don’t be afraid to be wrong.If you could have a conversation with any
scientist, living or dead, who would it be?
It may not be very original, but I would love to talk
to Charles Darwin. He gets a lot of criticism from
evolution deniers for not getting everything right,
but the fact that he was right about so many things
and was able to make accurate predictions despite
having much less information than we do now
shows how insightful he was, which is why I
think he would be such an interesting person
to talk to. He had many adventures and I’m
sure he would be keen to hear how the field
of biology has progressed.How useful will your skills be after
the apocalypse?
It depends how many gulls there still are!OK, one last thing: tell us something that will
blow our minds...
It is probably difficult to blow the minds of science
magazine writers and readers, but there will always
be things some people don’t know or haven’t
thought about. How about this? You are more
closely related to a tuna than a tuna is to a shark.
Or, you are living closer in time to Tyrannosaurus
than Tyrannosaurus was to Stegosaurus. ❚Madeleine Goumas is a PhD student at the Centre for
Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter, UK“ Gulls are like
untrained dogs:
a big portion of
food is just too
tempting to
turn down”
Gulls aren’t the food-stealing menaces
you might think. They are actually
fascinating and complex creatures
that we don’t really understand,
says Madeleine Goumas