Photo credit: Nic Hitchens
The seagull menace has just risen to an entirely new level, as a wayward member of the species attempted to swallow a rat whole in front of horrified onlookers.
The grim spectacle took place on a packed metro platform in Bristol, UK, earlier today.
A bunch of seagulls were battling a rival flock of crows for a rat’s corpse. The birds pulled and drag the rodent around, until one of the seagulls caught it in its beak and attempted to swallow it whole.
The creature managed to ingest it up to the tail, but the food item proved too large to take all the way. The seagull took flight with the rodent lodged in its mouth, chased by other birds.
Seagull armies are currently on the offensive here in Ireland, and an exclusion zone has been declared around certain areas of the capital where seagull activity is particularly intense.
So far, the birds have demolished a school and performed area-denial attacks by routing humans from beer gardens and other outdoor locations.