Playback of audio recordings is a well-established method of eliciting behavioural responses in the wild. The effects of audio playback on the behaviour of wild European herring gulls (Larus argentatus) has not been well researched however. The present study was conducted in order to address this using playback of recordings of European herring gull alarm calls, European herring gull food begging calls, a woodland dawn chorus or silence to wild free-living birds that had been attracted to the study site by the scattering of a highly palatable food mixture. Each call type was played 8–9 times in randomised order across the 40 day study period with only one call being played per day. Playback was initiated 30 s after two or more gulls had landed within the within the baited area and continued for 2 min thereafter. The number of birds on the ground within this area was recorded at 10 s intervals during the 30 s before the playing of the calls was initiated through to the 30 s afterwards. Results were clear and showed that whilst groups of herring gulls typically arrived in close temporal proximity to each other and quickly began consuming the food, they took flight within seconds of hearing their own species’ alarm calls even though there was still food left to be eaten. The woodland dawn chorus produced a similar effect for reasons that are not fully understood. The begging calls were largely without effect and as with the ‘silent’ condition numbers of gulls on the ground appeared to decrease in relation to a reducing amount of food left to be eaten. These data together demonstrate that whilst wild European herring gulls respond with flight upon hearing their own species’ alarm calls, other sounds can produce this effect also.

录音的回放是一种在野外引起行为反应的公认方法。音频播放对野生欧洲鲱鸥（Larus argentatus）行为的影响尚未得到很好的研究。进行本研究的目的是通过播放欧洲鲱鸥警报电话，欧洲鲱鸥食物乞求电话，林地黎明合唱或对野生自由活动鸟类的沉默来解决这一问题，这些鸟类已被研究人员吸引到了研究地点。散发出高度美味的食物混合物。在为期40天的学习期间，每种通话类型均按随机顺序播放8–9次，每天仅播放一次。在两个或更多海鸥降落在诱饵区域内30秒钟后开始播放，此后持续2分钟。在开始通话之前直到30 s的30 s内，以10 s的间隔记录了该区域内地面上的鸟类数量。结果很清楚，表明尽管成群的鲱鸥通常在时间上彼此靠近并迅速开始食用食物，但即使仍有食物可供食用，他们在听到自己物种警报的几秒钟内就飞了起来。 。林地黎明合唱团产生了类似的效果，原因尚不完全清楚。乞讨的电话基本上没有任何效果，并且与减少食用的食物量相比，海鸥在“沉默”状态下的数量似乎减少了。