Hungry seagulls keep hungry students company from afar. Photo courtesy of junior Roslyn Risner.
Every student at San Luis Obispo High School has seen the renowned seagulls traipsing about the campus, usually eating food scraps left over from lunch, or watching us from high above with one foreboding eye. Although often the topic of harsh feelings and shared disgust, these feathered creatures do more good than they’re recognized for.
Seagulls are a helpful and natural cleanse to the school’s campus. They help pick up food scraps that students neglect to throw away, which would otherwise rot in place until custodians or other good samaritans clean it up.
“[Without the seagulls] I think there would be a lot more litter and food waste on the grounds around campus,” said junior Roslyn Risner.
Not only that, but seagulls and other birds add natural ambiance to breaks at SLO High. The school itself is situated in a unique area filled with wildlife, but it’s easy to lose sight of this while traveling from class to class. The friendly urban seagulls remind us of the nature that surrounds us constantly.
The leading cause for gulls’ loitering, it seems, is students’ lack of cleanliness.
“I think in order to remove them we need to make serious efforts about cleaning up after lunch and not leaving behind food scraps,” said freshman Greyson Diringer.
Some students and staff feel that the birds are an unnecessary annoyance that eat students’ food and bring aggression to the school’s environment. However, they are a part of nature and are usually only aggressive when threatened.
So many people hate the seagulls that there’s a sort of unity found through it. Gulls are very social creatures, able to recognize faces and typically fly in flocks of dozens or hundreds, just like humans. They help keep our campus clean, and silently keep us company on our busiest days. Whether through love or hatred, the seagulls bring us all closer to the school.
Sources: birdfact.com, oceanconservancy.org, earthbuddies.net, wethecurious.org
