Why are Dead Seagulls Being Nailed to Stakes on Some Maine Islands?

Have you ever seen The Birds?

I've always been a huge Alfred Hitchcock fan, since I was a kid. I remember seeing Psycho on some afternoon movie thing on TV, and I was fascinated. Maybe even a bit terrified, you know... being a kid and all. But to this day, one of the ones that still creeps me right the !@%$ out, is The Birds.

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They seem so normal, but by the end they're most vicious beasts on the face of the planet. So when I first saw this post on Reddit, it hit me right in the same place as the first time I saw The Birds. But then like most things, if you dig a little deeper, you find out the real reason something is happening isn't that scary at all. Maybe a bit gruesome, but not scary.

A Redditor simply posted a photo of a dead seagull, nailed to a stake.

It was spotted on Trumpet Island, which is off the coast of Tremont. Initially, it looks like some kind of gruesome act of animal cruelty. But as you get deeper into the comments, the true nature of the display comes to light. You discover that it's actually kind of a good thing to have these dead gulls nailed up there.

***This image is a bit graphic*** If you're sensitive to this kind of thing... And understandably so...

Dead seagulls nailed to stakes on Trumpet Island
byu/ppitm inMaine

On islands like these along our coast, smaller protected birds can be nesting or trying to establish a population. In general, seagulls are wildly overpopulated around Maine. They also happen to hunt for many of these smaller birds. When the dead gulls are displayed in this manner, it acts as an extremely effective deterrent to other seagulls taking a peek at that area.

The method is actually pretty successful.

It would seem, at least judging by the comment section on Reddit, that most biologists are totally on board with the practice. And it's a common enough deterrent that you can actually buy dead seagull decoys online. In the same way you might buy an owl decoy to scare pigeons, these fake gulls will help keep real gulls away.

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I imagine the real ones are far more effective than the decoys. The real ones are likely decaying and smelly. A fake one might just smell like a rubber factory. But it'll never cease to amaze me that nature often provides the best methods for dealing with itself. Might as well fight fire with fire. Or in this case, seagulls.

In case you wanted something to be legit scared of...