Birds of prey chase away garbage-eating seagulls from Toronto landfills

Bald eagles aren't just aniconic national symbol south of the borderhere in Toronto, they're the noble and brave protectors of garbage dumps.

Local landfills are plagued by garbage-eating seagulls.They harmthemselvesby eating unnatural food sources and can harm the environment by carrying trash outside the landfill.

The city's eco-friendly solution to that problem? Massive birds of preythat swoop in andscare the seagulls away.

"We train these raptors to chase the gulls away," saidStephen Bucciarelli, president ofPredator Bird Services Inc. "It's essentially their job to do it. But to them it's not going to work, they just have fun all day flying around."

Falconry is a practice that dates back thousands of years. The predatory birds, including hawks and falcons,were trained to catch prey asfood for humans before guns became a common tool in hunting.

Within the last 40 years, companies like Bucciarelli's have usedfalconry as a form of bird control.

"We'velearned how to manage these birds so they are really comfortable at work and effective at it," he said.

A one-year-old bald eagle is one of the predators that soars across Toronto landfills.

"He's just learning the ropes of flying in the wind and he's doing really well,"Bucciarellisaid, adding that the eagle and its winged colleagues are so effectiveat their jobthat gullsdon'teven frequent the landfills anymore they've learned to stay far away.

It's a win-win because the seagulls don't know what's good for them, he said.

"It's not good forbirds to eat unnatural food sources, so if we're scaring them...they're going tobe eating from natural sources like fishrather than things leftover from humans,"Bucciarelli said.