Gulls: Ticket to Thrive

The gull nests in the Farallons and hitches
truck rides on land (Shaffer/SFGate)

A GPS-tracking device traced a seagull's 94-mile journey from Candlestick Point to Modesto at the incredible speed of 60 miles per hour. [bold added]

[Biology professor Scott Schaffer] scrolled and zoomed in, tracing her 80-mile journey that appeared to start at the San Francisco Recology site near Candlestick Point. She went over the Bay Bridge, down Interstate 880 and onto Highway 580 before reaching a composting center in the Central Valley near Modesto. What threw him was her speed, which averaged 60 mph — clearly too fast for her to be flying herself. He soon confirmed she had backup, having hitched a wild ride on an 18-wheel garbage truck and staying overnight before flying back to her colony in the Farallones.

But this was no Pixar movie plot. Shaffer suspected the bird most likely became trapped under the layer of wire mesh lining the top of the truck while foraging for scraps. Yet, even more remarkable was the fact that she repeated the voyage the following day: going to San Francisco Recology to hitchhike down to the same composting facility, this time taking the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge while her mate watched over the nest in her absence.

Seagulls are protected by law, and their population in the Bay Area has exploded from 24 in 1980 to over 50,000. Their intelligence and adaptability--and lack of natural predators---augur for a population that has a long way to go before reaching its ceiling.