Effort Underway To Save Fledgling Seagulls At Cape Cod Mall
HYANNIS (CBS) - They give new meaning to the term "mall rats", young seagulls littering the Cape Cod Mall parking lot because they've fallen and they can't get up.
"We're asking drivers who are entering the Cape Cod Mall and leaving the mall to use extreme caution," says Theresa Barbo, director of the Cape Wildlife Center.
The seagulls have been nesting on the roof of Macy's. The problems is, when they become juveniles, they start trying to use their wings and aren't always successful.
WBZ-TV's Christina Hager reports
Some don't survive the fall, some are injured, and others are often hit by drivers who can't see them.
"The Humane Society of the United States, which operates Cape Wildlife, will work with mall management to try to find a humane way to solve the problem," says Barbo. In the meantime, the Cape Wildlife Center is rehabilitating some of the injured gulls.
If it seems like a lot of effort for a bird many consider a pest, Cape Cod natives defend the gulls. "We've got to do something to help them survive," one mall shopper told WBZ in the mall parking lot. "Seagulls have been part of the Cape ecosystem for thousands of years. They don't know they're considered by some people to be an inferior species," says Barbo.
