Springwach presenter slammed for feeding gulls at Llandudno

Jun 18 2009 North Wales Weekly News

A TV presenter has been slammed for feeding seagulls on Llandudno promenade.

Simon King of BBC2’s Springwatch was shown encouraging the gulls to swoop down to take chips from a polystyrene tray.

In the programme he was shown sitting on the promenade opposite the St George’s Hotel as he talked about the herring gulls which had gathered around him.

At one stage he held up a chip in his fingers. Gulls were filmed flying past and snatching chips from the tray.

The naturalist told viewers: "It has happened to all of us at some point, hasn't it? There you are at the seaside enjoying a bag of chips and in comes a thieving gull.

"Most seaside towns discourage the feeding of gulls and you can understand why.

“They are big, powerful birds and a kid’s fingers could be damaged by a gull’s beak if it snatches a chip from their hand.

"But there are very few large wild birds in Britain that give us such marvellously close views and when you see them close proximity it is very obvious that they are rather beautiful.”

In recent years there have been a number of incidents where locals and visitors have sustained head and facial injuries when gulls swoop down to steal food.

And Llandudno town councillor Gareth Roberts said Mr King behaved irresponsibly by allowing the gulls to steal chips from his tray on national television.

"I love our gulls but they can be dangerous, especially to those unfamiliar with their behaviour,” he said.

“Every year we hear of unwary tourists having food snatched out of their hands.

"People shouldn’t really feed the seagulls at all but allowing them to fly up into your face and pinch chips from your hand, as the BBC showed, is irresponsible because I worry that people watching will be tempted to go out and copy Simon King.”

Conwy county’s environmental enforcement department commented: "Seagulls can be more aggressive at this time of year because they’re nesting. Simon King was taking a risk to demonstrate how the gulls take food from easy sources instead of their natural habitat and we wouldn't recommend that anyone copies him."

A BBC spokesman denied Simon King was actively feeding the gulls.

“He was merely demonstrating their opportunistic and thieving nature. He makes clear in the item that the gulls are a potential hazard and that many local authorities discourage feeding the birds,” he said.