Is it wrong for seagulls to eat chicken? Can seagulls digest chicken bones?

Question

I had chinese food for dinner the other night, I ate it down at the docks before my meeting, I had a lot of chicken left over so I threw it out on the road, then all these seagulls started eating it.

There was something disturbing about a seagull walking around with a chicken drumstick in its mouth. The seagull swallowed the whole thing bone and all, is this good for him? Can a seagull digest a whole chicken bone?

Is this normal for seagulls to eat chicken? Is it a form of cannabalism?

Answer 1

It would only be cannibalism if it were eating another gull, of the same species, otherwise all raptors would be cannibals. Some gulls are opportunistic omnivores with predatory tendencies, others are much more predatory. Bone is not really an issue, greater black-backed gulls for example are major predators on the young of other birds (ex eiders, a type of sea duck), they will catch and eat some of the smaller water birds like dovekie which they swallow whole. Some gulls will even harass raptors such as falcons and try to steal their prey. At this link you can see a herring gull eating an adult blue jay which it stole from a peregrine falcon ! http://www.ofo.ca/photos/images/herringgullbluejayma.jpg

But as mentionned before trash would be a more appropriate place for the leftovers. Feeding the gulls can only lead to problems, ex: harassing people for food, throwing it in the road can be hazardous to the gulls or other wildlife that may want to eat the chicken as it raises the odds of them getting hit by cars.

Answer 2

Seagulls are not chickens, so it is not cannibalism. Humans eat other mammals, don't they?
Seagulls naturally eat fish and meat when they can get it. It's fine for them to eat chicken.
They can't digest the bone, but never fear. The drumstick went into the bird's crop, a kind of pre-stomach storage and processing organ located just under the chin. The bird will spit out the bone later. Or maybe it will spit out the whole drumstick and pick the meat off at a more leisurely pace. Or if you are in the southern hemisphere and it has chicks, it may feed them with it.
Where I live in California, there are some islands off shore. Seagulls regularly travel between the islands and the shore, and there are thousands of chicken bones carried to the islands (where hardly anybody lives) from the shore. Why did they carry the bones so far? I can only speculate.
They absolutely love fries, too.

Answer 3

o my god, i am laughing my bu*t off. this is probably the funniest question i have ever read. for one a seagull can eat a whole fish
whole, doesn't care about the bones. i wish you could have took a picture of the seagull with the drumstick in it's beak, man that would be too funny. seagulls by the way are sort of like roaches
that can fly, they will eat anything, and will go to a available food source. as far as cannibalism, they will chow down on their own young if it means that they will survive.

Answer 4

Seagulls worship at the Alter of Buffalo Wild Winds Daily.

Answer 5

Seagulls are scavengers and have an amazing digestive system.
They can digest chicken bones, and starfish and all kinds of disgusting stuff.

But I wish you would put your garbage in a trash receptacle.
Aside from making a messy environment, you are making these seagulls into welfare birds, who won't look after themselves.

Answer 6

How Do Seagulls Eat

Answer 7

seagulls will pick the meat of the bones and leave the bones of almost anything they can get hold of including dead chickens

Answer 8

I too am having trouble with seagulls trying to attack my chickens, did not really know they did such things

Answer 9

no clue but i do know the seagulls are protected its 1,700 fine for hurrassing them and for that reason they pick up peoples trash but i dont see anything wrong with shareing with the animals

Answer 10

sea gulls are scavengerswill eat almost any thing. the garbage dumps are a favorite spot