Herring gulls (the gull in the video) are obviously smart, resourceful animals. This means they’re opportunistic, and sometimes do things we’d think are horrific. But they’ve had to opportunists, as they’re in decline in the UK:
And in North America as well:
Their decline is attributed not just to the closing of the many open landfills that seemed to support them years ago, but also to the general decline in fish populations:
Another example of their adaptive smarts: herring gulls consume shellfish such as clams by flying upwards with the clam, then dropping it onto a hard surface, breaking the shell. They then fly back down and feed. This is apparently a learned behavior, and there are many studies on it:
