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A chorus of sea gull squawks and screeches could be heard in a seaside Belgian resort town on Sunday — but it was not coming from the birds.
Competitors from 13 countries came together in De Panne, Belgium, to see who could produce the most faithful imitation of a gull sound for the fifth annual European Gull Scream Championship.
And it was not just sounds: The 70 participants also mimicked gull style in artful costumes. Faux feathers, beaks and claws were spotted at the event, which took place inside a large cafe in De Panne, a small town that borders France.
Anna Brynald of Denmark won the adult category, while wearing white-and-yellow face paint and a cap to cover her hair. Her costume included a white feather boa and a cape that mimicked wings.
“I practiced with TikTok and I practiced in front of the mirror and in front of the sea gulls,” Ms. Brynald said in an interview with Reuters.
Some competitors also brought props to the event. One contestant stretched her arms to imitate wings while she screeched, then paused her noise making to quickly stick her face inside a snack bag.
The competition was organized by Claude Willaert, who has worked as a coastal educator for the province of West Flanders and as an amateur comedian for more than 20 years. He said in an interview on Monday that the event was meant to create a more positive image of sea gulls.
There is “friction” between gulls and people in Belgium, he said. The gulls, he added, were unfairly blamed for problems caused by human behavior. While some people complain that gulls inhabit their spaces, make disruptive noise, and steal their food, he said humans had encouraged this by feeding the birds old bread, storing their trash in easily accessible bags and infringing on the birds’ habitats.
“I wanted to make sea gulls sexy again by organizing this event,” Mr. Willaert said. “They really deserve to have a positive image.”
A five-person jury judges the screeches. Each jury member can give up to 15 points for the screech and five points for behavior, for a possible total score of up to 100 points. The jury members include scientists, policymakers and a representative for a local nature association.
There are two other categories in the competition: junior, for people 16 years old and under, and colony, for groups.
Cooper Wallace, 10, of Chesterfield, England, won the junior category for the second year in a row. His sister, Shelby, 7, made her debut at the competition and placed fourth, according to The Derbyshire Times, a local newspaper in Derbyshire, England.
Shelby told the newspaper: “I was kind of annoyed that I didn’t get a medal, but very happy for Cooper.”
An Italian group that called itself Gabbiani Partigiani, or Partisan Seagulls, won the colony category. They wore red neckerchiefs and plastic bags stretched over their heads, with holes around their eyes, mouths and noses. The group’s members are from an artist collective, Generazione Disagio, and besides bright yellow beaks and claws and a few feathers stuck to their bodies, they wore little else.
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