Why spend energy flapping your wings when you can ride comfortably in the dining car? One clever western gull figured out how to hitch a ride on a Recology truck hauling compost from a landfill transfer station in San Francisco to the composting facility in Vernalis, California (south of Stockton).
A researcher studying breeding western gulls on Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge discovered the innovative foraging route. To learn where the gulls go to feed, he tagged them with GPS trackers. The mapped data show this gull flew from the Farallons to the SF transfer landfill, then into the city, across the Bay Bridge, south along I-980 and I-580 through the East Bay, and inland to the Vernalis site. The map then shows the gull flying overland and across SF Bay to the SF transfer station, and back over the Pacific Ocean to the Farallons.
Not just once.
The gull flew back home and then two days later took the same trip.
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This gull travelled 75 miles on a Recology truck — twice — to visit the compost pile of his dreams. See the route in the video below.
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