A family in the United Kingdom is continuing their search for a pet chihuahua after a seagull picked it up and flew away with it.

Becca Hill, 24, told the BBC that a gull swooped down in the family's garden Sunday in the seaside town of Paignton, in the province of Devon. The gull grabbed Gizmo, the 4-year-old chihuahua, "by the scruff of his neck," she said.

"My partner tried to grab his legs, but he was not tall enough and ... the seagull flew away," Hill told the BBC. Hill did not respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY.

Ornithologist Peter Rock of the University of Bristol told the BBC that seagulls are, indeed, capable of picking up small animals such as a chihuahua.

The largest gull species, the great black-backed gull, has a wingspan of up to 5 feet 3 inches and lives along coasts.

Similar incidents occurred in the summer of 2015: Over three months, seagulls killed two small dogs — one of which died in the same province Gizmo was stolen.

Other experts aren't so sure.

"This would be rare, and I wouldn’t describe it as a common behavior," Thomas M. Gehring, a professor of wildlife ecology at Central Michigan University, told USA TODAY.

"The dog would need to be quite small. Most gulls would be too small to do this."

Kevin McGowan, a project manager at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, agrees that it's very unlikely, as gulls don't have talons like other birds of prey such as raptors. He added that since gulls and chihuahuas weigh around the same, it would be near impossible to accomplish such a feat.

"It’s debatable whether raptors with strong feet can carry anything close to their own weight, but no way could a bird carry its own weight in its bill," McGowan told USA TODAY. "Not only would it be hard to lift off with that much weight, but there would be no possible way to get it to a stable position under the weight-bearing portion of the wings.

But there is a biological explanation to this phenomenon, Gehring explained. Gulls have a habit of stealing eggs, and on occasion, chicks from other birds' nests.

In 2011, a flock of seagulls made headlines for stealing a dozen black swans' eggs in the same province of Devon. The eggs are considerably large, measuring an average of more than 4 by 2 inches.