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According to a new study conducted by researchers at Duke University, landfill-dwelling seagulls are polluting our waterways with their feces. The researchers used both empirical data and their own hunches to estimate the number of landfill-dwelling seagulls in North America, which is approximately five million.
The researchers also found that seagull feces was responsible for the transportation and deposit of 240 tons of nitrogen and 39 tons of phosphorous a year into North American lakes and reservoirs.
StudyFinds has more details:
Scavenging seagulls don’t only raise a ruckus, but their poop pollutes our waterways, a new study finds.
Researchers at Duke University used both empirical data and their own hunches to estimate the number of landfill-dwelling seagulls in North America, finding that while the popular figure was 1.4 million, it was likely closer to five million.
Examining the loading of nutrients from two large drinking reservoirs near landfills in North Carolina — Jordan Lake and Falls Lake — the researchers used this data to estimate the total amount of phosphorous and nitrogen in bodies of water across the continent.
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