by Benjamin Minch, Staff Writer
They strike at noon, flooding the bowl with sounds of horror. Nothing stands between them and our food. Somebody must bring them to a halt; someone must save the bowl at Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) or else the terror will only get worse. Someone must stop the hungry seagull birdemic.
For centuries, seagulls have been terrorizing students at FVHS during lunch time activities in order to score a hefty meal.
One victim of a recent seagull attack was Alvin Nguyen (’18). He described the attack in this graphic interview.
“I was pooped on by a seagull while waiting in the lunch line. I felt this wetness on the back of my neck, and when I touched it, it felt grainy and nasty. This ruined my day and made me feel grossed out and uneasy.” said Nguyen.
As you can see, the seagulls at FVHS show no mercy, but why do they behave this aggressively? I did some research on the behavioral patterns of California seagulls to find out.
Seagulls become increasingly aggressive when they are exposed to high levels of human food and waste. The seagulls need to collect food for their young because fall and summer are their breeding season, but seagulls aren’t dumb animals. They have an intense skill of recognizing an abundant food source, signaling all the other seagulls in the area and always coming back to the same spot.
Seagulls have recognized the FVHS bowl as a huge food source that is supplied daily. Students everywhere around FVHS leave their food and trash on the ground, keeping the seagulls coming back every day at lunch.
Students have in fact brought the seagulls to FVHS, but students can also help rid them from our campus. Being aggressive towards seagulls is a good way to ensure they don’t come back because seagulls only want easy meals, not one they have to work for.
The best way however, is to get rid of the source of the problem. If students at FVHS picked up their food and trash after lunch, the seagulls would have nothing to eat; therefore,they would not come back to this campus. So do a good deed students: please pick up your trash because the birdemic is growing at FVHS, and you might end up as their next victim.
