We have all witnessed seagulls digging through trash cans, trash bins, and just plain rubbish on our streets and parks.
Researchers have recently discovered that seagulls garbage affiliations is exposing the birds to discarded antibiotics- which interact with their intestinal bacteria. You might be asking yourself- Why should I be concerned about this?- It’s because these normal bacteria can sometimes mutate into new antibiotic- resistant (super) bugs!
Well for the most part, superbugs are pretty harmless to healthy humans. Antibiotics-resistant bacteria prey on the weak- most of which are already suffering from some unrelated infection.
The discovery of such superbugs in the wild is pretty phenomenal, and alarming. “Migrating birds that fly and travel long distances can act as transporters, or as reservoirs, of antibiotic resistant bacteria and may consequently have a significant epidemiological role in the dissemination of resistance,” the researchers wrote in their paper.
Now here are some pictures of seagulls I’ve taken over the years of living near the ocean 🙂
Photography + Science = Chanel 