Herring gulls are one of the few species that thrive in anthropogenic landscapes and their familiarity with people makes them an excellent target for studies of inter-species social cognition. Urban gulls pay attention to human behaviour in food-related contexts and we set out to investigate whether such cues can be used to redirect a gulls attention to potential food items in their environment. Herring gulls were given free choice of two differently coloured anthropogenic food items in the presence of a demonstrator, who was either sitting still or pretending to eat food from an item that matched one of the secondary food items. We found that a demonstrator mimicking eating significantly increased the likelihood of an approach or peck. Furthermore, 95% of pecks were directed towards the secondary food item which colour-matched the demonstrator′s food item. The results show situation-dependent attentional modulation in gulls, whereby gulls are able to use human cues for stimulus enhancement and foraging decisions. Given the relatively recent history of urbanisation in herring gulls, this cross-species social information transfer is likely to be a by-product of the cognitive flexibility inherent in kleptoparasitic species.

Herring gulls ( Larus argentatus ) are one of few species that thrive in anthropogenic landscapes, and their familiarity with people makes them an excellent target for studies of inter-species social cognition. Urban gulls pay attention to human behaviour in food-related contexts and, thus, we set out to investigate whether such cues can influence a gull's attention to and choice of potential food items in their environment. Herring gulls were given free choice of two differently coloured anthropogenic food items in the presence of a demonstrator, who was either sitting still or eating food from an item that matched one of the presented ones. We found that a demonstrator eating significantly increased the likelihood of a gull pecking one of the presented items. Furthermore, 95% of pecks were directed toward the presented food item that colour-matched the demonstrator's food item. The results showed gulls were able to use human cues for stimulus enhancement and foraging decisions. Given the relatively recent history of urbanization in herring gulls, this cross-species social information transfer could be a by-product of the cognitive flexibility inherent in kleptoparasitic species.