With an oink oink here and an oink oink there, four weaner pigs seemed to have scared seagulls away from a duck hunting club.

The Rudy Duck Club, which borders the Salt Lake International Airport in the marshland of the Great Salt Lake, has been using the young pigs for the past five years. Members put the pigs up in shelters on the four islands — two per island so they have company — in the 1,900-acre club, and the animals do what comes naturally.

"The seagulls were taking over the islands," said Lane Jensen, a member of the duck club board. Their nesting habits were "messing up the airport, it was killing off the island for any other nesting."

Hunters who couldn't shoot the gulls had to come up with a backup plan.

"It's the state bird," Jensen said.

After other methods failed to be anything more than a temporary fix, a rancher near the club suggested the pigs would root in the gull nests for eggs and disrupt the breeding cycle. The pigs were turned loose every April and roamed the islands until mid-June.

The pigs stay away from geese, which are twice as big as the weaners and have a frightening hiss.

This year, gulls didn't try to nest on the islands, Jensen said.

"So it worked," he said.

　　在过去的几年中，美国犹他州的一个猎鸭俱乐部一直在借助小猪帮他们赶走在俱乐部中筑巢的海鸥。这种用小猪驱赶海鸥的方法效果非常明显。

　　据美联社9月5日报道，这个位于美国大盐湖沼泽地区盐湖国际机场附近的鲁迪鸭俱乐部，借助小猪驱赶来此筑巢的海鸥已经有5年时间了。每年4月份，俱乐部的成员会将刚断奶的小猪分散在占地1900亩的俱乐部的4个岛上（每个岛上两只小猪，这样它们不至于孤单）。这些小猪将在岛上一直“工作”到6月中旬。

　　俱乐部莱恩·詹森表示，海鸥曾占据了这些小岛，它们筑巢的习惯把盐湖国际机场搞得一团糟，而且还使其它鸟类难以在这里筑巢。另外，由于海鸥被尊为犹他州的州鸟，因此来这里猎鸭的猎手们也不能伤害它们。

　　在尝试了其它一些方法均告失败后，俱乐部附近的一位农场主建议他们不妨利用小猪来赶走海鸥。

　　实践证明，小猪不仅用嘴拱海鸥的巢穴以寻找海鸥蛋吃，而且还会破坏海鸥的繁殖周期。詹森说，经过小猪的“辛苦工作”后，看来，今年海鸥不会再在这些岛上筑巢了。