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Gulls thrive on snatching chips from unwary beachgoers, but now research shows that painting a pair of eyes on takeaway boxes could put gulls off, reducing thefts by as much as 50%.

Laura Kelley, from the University of Exeter, and colleagues presented herring gulls with tempting takeaways at a number of seaside towns in Devon and Cornwall. When faced with a choice between a box with eyes painted on it and a plain box, the gulls were slower to approach the box with eyes and less likely to peck at it. And the findings, which are published in Ecology and Evolution, show that the effect is sustained, with gulls remaining wary of the boxes with eyes on them, even after repeated exposure.

Watchful eyes have also been shown to be a good deterrent in other situations, including keeping starlings away from crops, raptors away from airports and even reducing predator attacks on livestock (by painting eyes on an animal’s rump). Humans are also susceptible to the feeling of being watched, with images of human eyes successfully used to deter bike theft and even increase charitable donations. But not everyone, or every gull, is taken in by the feeling of being watched. For bolder gulls, shouting has been shown to be a good deterrent.