Watch A Hungry Seagull Snag A Street Rat And Swallow It In One Gulp

You’ve probably dealt with seagulls trying to steal your lunch, but these creatures are interesting feeders. While a sandwich and chips sound like a regular meal, seagulls eat a wide range of questionable foods. In the video at the bottom of this page, you’ll witness something you wish you hadn’t.

Check Out This Incredible Footage In The Video Below!

What Do Seagulls Eat?

Let’s put it this way — seagulls are not picky about what they put in their mouths and gobble down. They eat a wide range of foods from sweet, yummy fruit like watermelon, pineapple, and bananas to full-on carrion which is essentially dead flesh. If it washes up on shore dead, they may just take a bite out of it. They do also act as if they’re in a fine dining restaurant, enjoying scallops, crabs, and oysters and they may get a bit more adventurous, devouring octopuses, squid, and bass.

They may also eat other smaller birds along with pine nuts and pecans and of course, processed food they manage to nab from unsuspecting humans. When circumstances shift, however, seagulls get creative and as you’ll see in the clip at the bottom of the page, they may even gobble up a fully grown, whole rat.

What’s The Difference Between Pet Rats And Wild Rats?

Many people think of rats as simply vermin — not necessarily as pets. However, there are pet rats that bond with their owners and live much longer and more comfortable lives than their wild counterparts. In fact, pet rats are often called “fancy rats” because the lives they lead are clean, cozy, and cuddly.

Although pet rats originate from wild rats, they, like any domesticated animal, are much different. Pet rats are fed by humans and don’t typically exercise as much as wild rats, so they’re usually a bit bigger. However, the size of the wild rat in the video below is impressive.

Seagull Swallows Rat Whole

This video starts with a view from a wide sidewalk in a busy town center. The seagull and rat are a bit blurry at first but the person holding the camera quickly zooms in. When you see the image, it’s both shocking and repulsing — a seagull has a huge rat hanging out of its mouth. The rat’s head is already inside the seagull’s mouth and only two-thirds of the rat’s body are visible, including its hind legs and tail.

The seagull moves its head quickly, accommodating the large meal in its throat and bobs its head back and forth, with the remaining parts of the rat disappearing into its mouth. It takes mere seconds before the entire rat is gone — only its tail is left in the seagull’s mouth, hanging out a bit as if the seagull is smoking a cigarette. Fair warning: it’s gross.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © iStock.com/napatsorn buranadis