Subject: Re: Gulls eat puffins
Date: May 4 18:47:29 1995
From: "T. Anne Sukova" - tgrr at u.washington.edu


Hello. I have been most amused about the questioning of whether or not
gulls, specifically black-backed gulls, have the capability of eating a
whole Puffin. I am taking a comparitve animal behavior class at the
University of Washington and every Thursday we get to watch these
wonderful films narrated by David Attenburough from a series called,
Trials of Life. Last month I was most astonished while watching the film
entitled Hunting and Escaping when they showed these adorable little
Puffins, and I don't remember where, but suddenly these gulls came
swooping down and started attacking them. The footage is incredibly
graqhic and I distinctly recall one scene in which a gull manages to
engulf an entire Puffin in one bite! The feet, however, were still
hanging out of its mouth and when it took off anothe gull grabbed a foot
and yanked the whole thing out of its mouth and flew off. I was amazed
that a gull could fit a whole Puffin in its mouth. I'm pretty sure he
said they were black-backed gulls. So, if you want to see this amazing
feat for yourself, I understand this series of films is available in most
video stores.

As a side note, most of the films I have seen thus far have had some
unbelievable scene with gulls attacking and eating other birds, ducks,
terns, other gulls...etc. You get the point. After what I've seen,
nothing would surprise me about gulls.

T. Anne