Hannah Huxford met the fry-stealing gull in Bridlington, a coastal town on the Yorkshire coast. Huxford posted the well-timed photo on her iPhone; it went viral (走红) soon after. A decade later, the fry-stealing gull is appearing on billboards, as part of an advertising campaign for Google.

Researchers recently discovered that food may actually become more attractive to gulls when the birds observe humans handling it first, according to a 2020 study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Because the birds seem to be attracted to food items that they’ve watched humans touch, another of the study’s authors, says that it’s even more important to properly throw food waste and snack wrappers in the trash. “Our findings suggest that gulls are more likely to approach food that they have seen people drop or put down, so they may associate areas where people are eating with an easy meal,” Dr. Laura Kelley said.

The scientists approached 74 herring gulls in coastal towns in Cornwall, attracting them with weighted bags of fried potatoes. Only 19 gulls were curious or hungry enough to linger (逗留), allowing the scientists to place the bag on the ground and move back a short distance away, waiting to see if a gull would approach.

Their experiments showed that gulls were more cautious about approaching a tempting treat (诱饵) if there was a person nearby who was watching them closely. However, the scientists also found that far fewer of the birds than expected showed interest in investigating the food at all when being stared at.

In fact, people may be able to protect their lunches from gulls by avoiding areas where the birds tend to gather and keeping a closer eye on their meals, she added. “Gulls have a bad reputation but, like all animals, they are just trying to survive,” Goumas said. “We can try to soften the conflict we have with them by making changes in our own behavior.”

It might not surprise the average Floridian to find a baby turtle on a sidewalk, but to my teenage eyes it appeared to be something unusual.

One morning, when my mother and I were jogging outside our neighborhood, from a distance I spotted an object about the size of a quarter moving on the sidewalk. When my mother and I were close enough, we realized the quarter was a baby turtle. It looked as though it was on a journey. Yet I wondered if it really knew where it was going because it was heading straight for the road. I told my Mum that if we didn’t take this baby turtle home it would become roadkill. She finally agreed to save it and told me turtles represented good luck. We carried it home, named it Morton and cared for it the best way we could.

We first placed Morton in mother’s bathroom sink (槽) and then an amphibian tank (两栖动物水箱). Slowly Morton grew from a quarter, to a dollar, a chocolate cookie, then eventually a disk.

I knew that people kept turtles like Morton as pets. However, one day it occurred to me that Morton wasn’t a domesticated turtle in a pet store. He was a wild turtle taken from nature and forced into the tank. I was trying to protect him like an overprotective parent by not setting him free. Suddenly, my heart broke into pieces. Slowly I picked up Morton and transported him to his original amphibian tank. It was time.

I will never forget the day I set Morton free. I walked to the neighborhood lake and carefully placed him on the shore. Morton didn’t hesitate to swim into the lake and that was the last time I had seen him.

A shark attacked a 14-year-old girl near a Florida beach on Saturday, though a surfer tried to save her. The surfer pulled the girl from bloody water and frightened the shark away with his fists (拳头).

Can sharks really smell blood in the water? Yes. Sharks have a good sense of smell, and blood happens to be a very attractive smell. Sharks also use sight and nearing to discover their food. In particular, hungry sharks like to hear the sounds which are mace by swimming fish. They also look for something bright. Attacks on people can sometimes be a case or mistaken recognition. Sometimes, a shark could confuse shining stones for food.

The sharks’ eyes ears and nose are all near their mouth. But sharks also search for their food with sensory receptors (感受器). These receptors can feel ay movement in the water. When a shark gets very close to o food, it can use electroreceptive organs (电觉器官), which sit the wall of little holes on the shark’s nose. Living things in salty seawater produce a weak electrical field (电磁场) that the shark can feel at a short distance, so it allows the shark to find out creatures that bury themselves in the sea floor. Muscle (肌肉) movements also produce little electrical fields that a shark can feel.

The surfer who tried to save the girl said he protected himself by frightening away the shark with his fists. Is that a good idea? Some experts think frightening away a shark with fists should only be the last choice. It won’t be wise for you to stay still in water. Swimming away rapidly seems to be a better choice. If you can’t swim away right away, hit the shark on the face or nose-where it has a high concentration of sensory receptors like humans-to drive off your attacker and give you enough time to escape. When you are beside a shark’s face, try sticking your finger in its eyes.