Herring gulls are one of the few species that thrive in anthropogenic landscapes. Their longstanding history of urbanisation and familiarity with people makes them an excellent target for studies of the effects of urban living and cognition. Previous studies highlight a connection between food-stealing behaviour, success in anthropogenic areas and an increase in attention towards humans, opening up questions about the exact extent of a gull's knowledge of human food cues and how this manifests itself in behavioural changes. To investigate these questions further, behavioural responses to human cues in a food-related context are investigated and presented in a systematic ethogram, which identifies three distinct markers of attention. Those behaviours – head turns, approaches, and the angular body position relative to the experimenter – differ significantly between control and food conditions, showing that attention towards humans in a food-related context is upregulated and this is reflected in the gull's behaviour. In food condition trials, head turns occur more often and gulls face towards the experimenter (≤90°) with occasional approaches that are never seen in control conditions. Acoustic and behavioural human food-like cues alone were insufficient to elicit a response similar to that seen in presence of a real food item, indicating that gulls specifically pay attention to humans in foraging contexts. The results show situation-dependent attentional modulation in gulls, highlight knowledge gaps about how Herring gulls might identify food objects and provide an ethogram description of attentive behaviours that can be used in further study of attentional modulation in gulls.

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.

Herring gulls (Larus argentatus) are one of few species thriving in anthropogenic landscapes. Their history of urbanisation and familiarity with people makes them a good target for studies of human–wildlife interactions. Previous research highlights a connection between food-stealing behaviour, success in anthropogenic areas, and increased attention towards humans, raising questions about the exact extent of a gull's knowledge of human food cues. To explore these, behavioural responses to human cues in a food-related context were investigated and presented in a systematic ethogram, which identified three distinct markers of attention. Head turns, approaches, and angular body position all differed significantly between control and food conditions, showing that attention towards humans in a food-related context was upregulated and reflected in behaviour. In food condition trials, head turns occurred more often and gulls faced more towards the experimenter with occasional approaches that were never seen in control conditions. Acoustic and behavioural human food-like cues alone seemed insufficient to elicit these responses, indicating that gulls specifically paid attention to the details of human behaviour or had specific knowledge of anthropogenic food items. These results show situation-dependent attentional modulation in gulls and provide a description of attentive behaviours that can be used in further study.