Seagull eats 5 live bats

As seen on BBC Autumnwatch Unsprung on 07/10/2011.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b015pstd/?t=9m25s

Over a 4 night period I saw the same seagull sitting on the roof of next door neighbour's house, devouring around 20 bats and injuring just as many, that flew from inside the roof. My uncle and I have never seen anything like this before. I managed to film the gull eating 5 of them.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• bats
• pipstrels
• bat
• bat population
• Bat Bird Gull
• BBC Autumnwatch
• BBC Autumnwatch 2011
• BBC Autumnwatch Unsprung
• Live action

[Schipmom229]

I never thought that gulls would consider bats as a food source. Kind of depressing, given the decline in US from White Nose....I agree that this is scientific and yet scarey. Thanks for posting......

[maumau1968]

@Schipmom229 It is quite depressing but then again, there's very little on this Earth that we humans don't look at as a food source

[sandersii]

I would have chased the gull or fed it a piece of lead

Mark ^._.^

[maumau1968]

@sandersii I do feel guilty for watching and not doing anything, but I hope the video wil help with understanding the plight of bats where gulls are concerned.

[lphjr40]

I have seen Seagulls eat baby Mallard ducks just as they hatch from the egg.

[lphjr40]

I have seen Seagulls eating baby Mallard ducklings just as they hatch in the Springtime.

[erikvleer]

I have seen something likes this before, but with a magpie eating bats. Search on Youtube for: Urraca cazando murciélagos

[DjArpegius]

Batman gets mad when he sees this

[maumau1968]

@davthepunk Yeah, I definitely agree with you. Although watching and filming it was hard because of what was happening to the poor bats, I was in awe at the gull's intelligence, cunning and reflexes.

[davthepunk]

@maumau1968 I think that people have the tendency to think of herring gulls (and gulls in general, I suppose) as either 'bad tempered, noisy ducks' or something that just scrats around in the rubbish, like a feral pigeon. In actuality, they're highly intelligent, highly-adaptable and very inquisitive predators.