--- title: This Seagull Got An Accidental Dye Job, Thanks To Curry Vat description: A seagull on the coast of Wales fell into a container of chicken tikka massala at a food factory — and the Indian dish made quite an impact. canonical: https://time.com/4363470/orange-seagull-curry/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-09T20:47:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:33:13.870Z og:title: This Seagull Got An Accidental Dye Job, Thanks To Curry Vat og:description: A seagull on the Welsh coast fell into a food factory's tikka massala waste. og:url: https://time.com/4363470/orange-seagull-curry/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Seagull Got An Accidental Dye Job, Thanks To Curry Vat twitter:description: A seagull on the Welsh coast fell into a food factory's tikka massala waste. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Seagull Got An Accidental Dye Job, Thanks to a Vat of Curry > Sponsored content. 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But when he fell into a container of chicken tikka masala at a food factory on Monday, the vibrant spices from the ubiquitous Indian dish—a [“national dish”](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/apr/19/race.britishidentity) of England—quickly turned his feathers a distinctively bright curry hue. Workers rescued the sea bird from the vat of waste curry, and he was taken to a wildlife hospital where staff used dishwashing liquid to clean up the stained feathers, [reports _The Guardian_.](http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/09/seagull-turns-orange-after-falling-into-vat-of-chicken-tikka-masala?CMP=twt%5Fgu) “I’ve been a veterinary nurse for 25 years and I have never seen this happen before,” said Lucy Kells, a staffer at the hospital. Apparently the bird smelled quite strongly of tikka masala, and needed to be cleaned a few times over before the white-and-grey color was restored to his feathers. He’s “a bit skinny” still, so the hospital is keeping him in a cage and feeding him up before they’ll release him back into the wild. > [](https://twitter.com/guardian/status/740906128188551168) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4363470/orange-seagull-curry/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4363470/orange-seagull-curry/"},"headline":"This Seagull Got An Accidental Dye Job, Thanks to a Vat of Curry","datePublished":"2016-06-09T20:47:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:33:13.870Z","description":"This is one unusual wildlife rescue","url":"https://time.com/4363470/orange-seagull-curry/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","Wildlife","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4363470/orange-seagull-curry/","name":"This Seagull Got An Accidental Dye Job, Thanks to a Vat of Curry"}}]}] ```