This won't surprise most people, but seagulls didn't evolve to eat your french fries. They typically eat what's around the ocean, whether it's fish, molluscs or small mammals. Nonetheless, human wastefulness and urban expansion are providing ample food sources for these birds, which is seeming to significantly change their behavior, specifically where they prefer to live. And it turns out, thanks to our interference, the "sea" in seagull is slowly losing its meaning.
In a recent study published by the journal Ecological Informatics, the researchers used AI modeling that relied on environmental data from specific locations to learn why short-billed gulls (Larus canus) in Fairbanks, Alaska had swapped habitats. Although short-billed gulls typically live along coastlines and other bodies of water, these gulls had moved to human-made structures like parking lots, garbage dumpsters and industrial gravel pads over a span of months.
