Love them or hate them, seagulls are a funny breed that can be as fascinating as they can be aggressive.
They’ve earned themselves a bad rap over the years with horror stories of trauma and bloodshed, brutally swiping snacks from unsuspecting victims. But this time, it’s not the seagulls’ actions that have got people talking…it’s their feet.
One Reddit, user was quickly left red-faced after asking: “Has anyone ever seen a seagull in a tree? Why don’t they go on trees like other birds.”
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In true Reddit style, peoole were quick to wade in.
(Image: Getty Images)
One wrote: “See them feets there? Do them look like tree grabbers to you? Or do they look like water splashers? Well, there you go then.”
Another added: “I was going to joke ‘because of their big flappy feet’ and then realised that, actually, it’s not a joke.”
“You try standing on a branch with flippers on,” one person remarked, while another added: “The clue’s in the name.”
One quipped: “Because they’re not really birds, they’re shrieking eating sh*tt*ng demons!”
(Image: Getty Images)
The post quickly became a hot topic with one person commenting: “Particularly chonky one ran past me in town the other day while it was raining, he had the biggest feet I’ve ever seen on a gull, the ‘slapity-slapity-slapity’ sound he made on the wet pavement made me giggle for ages.”
Another said: “I urge everyone to read this in the voice of David Attenborough to get the full immersive experience of this quality comment.”
Then out came the comedy pun brigade with one person stating: “Probably because it’s not a treegull.”
Another replied adding: “That pun was so bad it should be illegull.”
“Two good puns. If only someone could make it threegull,” joked a third.
One a more serious note, one explained: “Gulls have feet adapted for swimming, and walking on mud. They are webbed with 3 forward pointing toes.
“Half of all birds are in a group called Passerines which have 3 toes that point forward and one backwards, and have muscle and tendon arrangements that allow them to grip. They can balance on thin wires and branches by holding them tightly, but gulls can’t.
“Gulls do occasionally sit in trees, but it needs to be on a broad branch or stump they can lay their feet flat on.
“Also, gulls feed, roost and nest in fields, wetlands and buildings, and not woodlands, so they don’t need to sit in trees.”
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