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13 Responses to "QotD: Seagulls"

1. | Reply Julia
   Posted 21 Aug 2005 at 8:54pm #
   

   Nope.... Where did that question come from??? ...lol...

2. | Reply Carey Barzeski
   Posted 21 Aug 2005 at 9:14pm #
   

   Where did the question come from?

   Little Bug was calling the geese that were flying over our house seagulls. Erik told her not to feed a seagull Alka Seltzer. And I (remembering that Erik was the kid that used to put foil gum wrappers into the outlets during science lectures in high school) asked if he ever did it. 🙂

   And no, I never have either.

3. | Reply Mike Cohen
   Posted 21 Aug 2005 at 10:22pm #
   

   No. Is it a well-known prank like cow tipping (which I also haven't done)?

4. | Reply Adam Jacob Muller
   Posted 21 Aug 2005 at 11:07pm #
   

   I'm actually at the beach right now on vacation, what exactly is supposed to happen if you feed a seagull an alka-seltzer?

5. | Reply Erik J. Barzeski
   Posted 21 Aug 2005 at 11:17pm #
   

   Adam, http://www.google.com/search?q=feed+seagull+alka-seltzer. C'mon buddy…

6. | Reply Julia
   Posted 22 Aug 2005 at 12:49am #
   

   I got real bored so I clicked you link thing then clicked a website and I learned a lot of usless information... like did you know that a penguin only has sex twice a year. poor penguin....

7. | Reply EJ
   Posted 22 Aug 2005 at 3:06am #
   

   Or not: Snopes: Against the Grain

   It seems like a lot of those google results are to compendiums of recycled (possibly) urban legends, and probably should be viewed skeptically.

8. | Reply Simone Manganelli
   Posted 22 Aug 2005 at 7:13am #
   

   C'mon buddy, yourself, Erik.

   http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=217385

   http://www.enviroliteracy.org/asktheexpert.php/49.html

   http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/birdrice.asp

   From the first link:

   Think logically.In order for a seagull to explode, 2 things would have to occur.First, the bird would have to have no ability to release the gas formed by the alka seltzer. We know this isn't true, since birds (including seagulls) do have the ability to "burp" to let off excess gas in the upper digestive tract. They can also regurgitate food if it doesn't agree with them.Second, even if they couldn't burp, the gas from a SINGLE alka seltzer would have to expand strong enough and fast enough to blow open the digestive system of the bird AND forcefully explode his whole body.C'mon... really! If alka seltzers had that kind of power, I don't think any of us would be taking them.Finally, why seagulls? They are just another bird. If it were true, don't you think we'd be hearing about exploding pelicans, ducks, pigeons, chickens, or what have you?No, this is like the duck's quack not echoing. It's one of those things that people love to believe, even though it has no basis in science.

   The Snopes.com link also debunks the myth of rice also causing birds to explode. (Again, this can be looked at logically -- when rice swells, it does indeed expand in volume, but it also takes over the volume of the original water that is now incorporated into the rice, resulting in no net loss or gain of water.)

9. | Reply Erik J. Barzeski
   Posted 22 Aug 2005 at 8:03am #
   

   Simone, I have no reason to "c'mon" as I was merely pointing someone having a lazyz moment towards Google. Anyone doing so would surely discover the truth - part of that being that exploding seagulls is an urban legend - and nothing else.

   Regardless, I remain confident that feeding a seagull an Alka Seltzer would result in some amount of discomfort, possibly pain, and certainly some unusual behavior. They put out a lot of gas very quickly.

   You didn't answer the question, either, Simone.

10. | Reply Julia
    Posted 22 Aug 2005 at 8:04am #
    

    What a fun wrecker you are Simone.

11. | Reply Simone Manganelli
    Posted 22 Aug 2005 at 8:49am #
    

    Hm. It seemed to me that by saying that "it wouldn't be a whole lot of fun," you were implying that something bad would happen. If you didn't mean to imply that, I apologize.. I may have been a bit hasty in that assumption. I just really hate it when people don't take the time to think logically or even just look things up on the net a little deeper than just the first Google search result.

    Anyway, I did forget to answer the question, didn't I? No, I have never fed Alka Seltzer to seagulls. I can't imagine it would be a whole lot of fun, really, either, since I gather that it would be quite boring. 😛

    Hope I didn't really burst too many bubbles here, no pun intended.

12. | Reply Paul Mayne
    Posted 23 Aug 2005 at 2:06am #
    

    I did. Actually it was my lunch buddy (I was the accomplice), when we were eating at the park.
    The seagull started foaming at the mouth then flew away where we could no longer see it.
    I immediately felt horrible and hoped for the best. It's actually good to hear that they don't explode. I don't like to hurt any kind of animals.

13. | Reply alka seltzer boy
    Posted 13 Oct 2005 at 2:08pm #
    

    well maybe the birds dont explode but im pretty sure they would swell up pretty large right?