Watch the video: whoever shouts better wins: Belgium celebrates a championship in seagull screeching.
This man has a serious concern – even if it may not seem so at first glance. In the Belgian coastal town of De Panne, participants met on Sunday for the 3rd European Crying Seagull Championships. And yes – participants are actually meant in the plural. Around 50 seagull fans have gathered to present their most beautiful calls and plumage. The Belgian Maren is almost something like professional gulls. “I’m a drama major and we had an assignment to find an animal and the seagull just fascinated me. So I started practicing and my friends were like, ‘Oh, that’s so beautiful. And then they sent me the links to this one Championship and I thought why not. It’s so much fun.” Both the calls of the gulls and the imitation of their behavior are evaluated. The fun EM should bring the seabirds a better image. Because many people slander seagulls as “rats of the air” who just steal the fries or the ice cream cone from their hands. But seagulls are part of the coast, says Jan Seys from the Marine Institute in Flanders and president of the jury for the competition. “Why are they appearing more and more often in our cities? Why are they sometimes seen as a threat or a nuisance? That’s up to us. Because there’s so much easy food in the cities now. And if you were a seagull and you knew that you were the If you can open garbage cans with a little pecking motion of your beak and then you have a five course meal, what would you do?” Call the whole family to dinner, maybe. The competition novice Yarmo from the Netherlands was able to secure the best bite in the screaming contest ahead of the theater seagull Maren. Third place went to featherless Rob, also from the Netherlands.