At Tidbinbilla NR outside Canberra the sport in the 1980s used to be
Emu-based. It was actually a bit more sedentary than the events in the UK
or suggested by Anthea as it merely involved standing round a barbecue and
trying to get a snag before the Emu cleared the hotplate.
A counterpart occurs in Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. There the challenge
is to cross the car park with any item of food in your hand without a Black
Kite taking it. Most tourists are advised to eat in the vehicle. We saw
one lady become quite upset when a Kite took a chook drumstick out of her
hand (also delivering a wing behind the ear to reinforce the lesson).
Martin
Martin Butterfield
http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/
On 2 August 2015 at 10:57, brian fleming <> wrote:
> Perhaps we should introduce a sport called Kookaburra-running, for picnic
> grounds and camping areas? See how far you can get with a chop-bone?
>
> Anthea Fleming
>
>
> On 2/08/2015 8:48 AM, Dave Torr wrote:
>
>> From the "World Wide Words" newsletter:
>>
>> Reports in British newspapers these past few days have featured the menace
>> from seagulls, particularly in Cornwall. Earlier this month a dog was
>> killed
>> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-33534181>
>> by a seagull in that county and a tortoise died
>> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-33547126> after being
>> flipped over and pecked to death. The birds are brazen in grabbing food
>> from visitors and in doing so have caused injuries. Young people have
>> taken
>> advantage by inventing a game called *gull running*. It’s said to have
>> started in Whitby but has since spread to other seaside towns. One person
>> holds food above their head — usually fish and chips — and runs a set
>> course. The winner is whoever can run the furthest without a seagull
>> grabbing the food.
>>
>> One correspondent to my newspaper was less concerned about the physical
>> injuries the birds can cause than about the purity of language. There are
>> no such things as seagulls, he argued. In the UK there are herring, great
>> black-backed, lesser black-backed, black-headed and common gulls and the
>> kittiwake, but something called a seagull doesn’t exist. A touch pedantic,
>> perhaps? We may be sure it won’t change his view to be told that English
>> has had *seagull* as a popular collective term since medieval times.
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