Professor Paul Graham

have then been impacted by the loss of habitat because of cities, and they've been impacted by other anthropogenic changes, such as loss of habitat due to intensive agriculture.

So the ones that have urbanised are kind of doing okay in population terms, and it's the others where we can see the impact.

That's a really, really good question.

So generally interaction between animals, when we think of food scenarios, we're usually thinking predator prey.

And so ecologists have this phrase, the life dinner principle, that if an interaction between two animals is going to end up with one of them dying, then you have very strong adaptations in order to make sure you don't get caught and that you don't get eaten.

So rabbits are significantly faster than foxes over a short distance because the risk is too great.

Whereas losing your dinner doesn't drive adaptations that are as extreme because it's just your dinner.

So I'm not exactly sure whether we would notice any adaptations other than the fact that

The skill you need to fly in order to steal is probably the same skill you need in order to fly in a highly mobile way in order to avoid being stolen from.

So it might be that the arms race is actually kind of really fine tuning the same thing.

I will say if I lost my dinner three times in a row, I would adapt ferociously.

Well, three.

I mean, if you lost it three times, we'd have to say that's a shame on you.

I think as far as I'm concerned, anybody who's lost their dinner twice in a kind of seafront area needs to have a long, hard look at themselves.

There was some really fun research from Exeter a few years ago where they demonstrated that if you can see a bird that's eyeing your food, if you make direct eye contact with them, then they won't try and steal while you're making eye contact.

So that's another sign of their skill because it shows that they're able to read the body language as to when you're paying attention or not.

If a gull is attacking you because it's a territorial scenario, so I sometimes get this on my street at home where if they're nesting on the house next door,

If I cycle past in the wrong colored clothing, then they seem to find that quite annoying.

And if they're attacking you in that scenario, then it is hard to stop them because that's an attack for defensive purposes rather than for food purposes.

And what you should do then is basically stand and point at the bird that's attacking you and make sure that it becomes disinterested as it realizes that you are paying attention.