We all can grasp the wisdom of not feeding the lions, bears and bison, but you really shouldn’t feed those seagulls either. Know why?

First-off, there’s the whole annoyance factor. Feeding the seagulls causes them to associate humans with food…and here comes the annoying part…which can result in them following people around, loudly squawking and flapping their wings at us, begging for more handouts – because, when it comes to Cheese Doodles, who wouldn’t? Yeah, not exactly ideal when you are trying to enjoy a relaxing walk along the shoreline or just chilling while you soak up some sun.

Plus, believe it or not, seagulls need to be careful when it comes to their diet. Foods with poor nutritional value such as bread, potato chips and other snack items, which may be perfectly suitable to us (aside from the dreaded fat content, of course), could lead to long-term health issues for these seabirds.

Worse yet, when you feed the seagulls, they tend to become more comfortable around humans. Sounds good if you are an animal lover, right? Wrong. They can become so confident, in fact, that they become aggressive, resulting in potential bites and other injury to humans.

Acceptable behavior on our beautiful beaches pretty much just boils down to common sense. So, properly dispose of your garbage, be respectful of wildlife habitat and please don’t feed the seagulls.