Zoo hiring people to dress up as birds so as to scare away seagulls
A UK zoo is recruiting people to scare away seagulls by wearing giant inflatable bird costumes.
Blackpool Zoo took to social media to post the advert for ‘Seagull Deterrents’ after seagulls in the area engaged in a spate of food thefts from visitors and enclosures.
The zoo management says one requirement is that candidates must be ‘outgoing’ as they ‘need to be comfortable wearing a bird costume’.
The full job advert reads: ‘At Blackpool Zoo it goes without saying that we love all animals! And as a seaside resort, Blackpool is not short of seagulls.
‘However, the seagulls are proving to be a bit of a nuisance when it comes to trying to steal food from our visitors and our animal enclosures!
‘We need to do what we can to keep the seagulls away from our main visitor dining areas, which is why we are looking for a team of people to join our Visitor Services team as “Seagull Deterrents”.’
The successful candidate must also be ‘focused, energetic, friendly, and flexible’.
It comes after a seagull had to be killed after it was dragged along the streets of the seaside town on a leash.
Lancashire Police were called to Bispham Road in Blackpool two weeks ago with reports of a man pulling the live bird about by a rope tied to its neck.
Officers attending the scene arrested the man, who is understood to be in his 50s, for being drunk and disorderly.
