Netizens treat gulls to 'takeout' in Kunming

More than 3,000 Chinese netizens have ordered takeout for the black-headed gulls in Kunming, China's Yunnan province to provide enough food for the species to spend a good winter.

Regarded as old friends by Kunming residents, the black-headed gulls spend their winter in Kunming between November and March every year, and there is a tradition of local residents voluntarily coming to feed the birds.

This year, due to the coronavirus, there have been fewer residents coming to feed the birds, which aroused the attention and worries of many netizens all around China, and they showed their compassion for feeding the birds by ordering food on Eleme, an online delivery platform.

Since January this year, the Kunming bureau of forestry and grassland has organized employees to carry more than a metric ton of food to habitats of the gulls each day, feeding the birds twice a day to make sure they survive the winter.

For the current winter, under the request of many online food-ordering clients, the Eleme platform launched a campaign of storing up winter food for the gulls in December.

More than 3,000 netizens forwarded the post and left messages to support the activity, as many servicemen of the platform with their electronic bicycles and blue uniforms, brought 500 bags of seagull food to feed the birds on Dec 15.

As of now, nearly 10,000 black-headed gulls have landed in Kunming from Siberia, and the local officials have arranged for people to feed the birds.

"The Eleme platform plans to work together with the manufacturers of seagull food in Kunming to open a gull canteen, so online consumers from other provinces and regions can order food online, and the servicemen of the platform can help to feed the birds on behalf of those generous contributors," said an employee of the platform.