Interactions of variation in food supply and kleptoparasitism levels on the reproductive success of Common Puffins (Fratercula arctica)

1985 ◽  
Vol 63 (12) ◽  
pp. 2743-2747 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake Rice
Keyword(s):  
Weight Gain ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Food Availability ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Larus Argentatus ◽  
Activity Rate ◽  
Fledging Success ◽  
Herring Gulls ◽  
Fratercula Arctica ◽  
Burrow Activity

Colonies of Common Puffins (Fratercula arctica), differing in numbers of breeding Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) present, also differed in puffin numbers, burrow placement, and burrow activity rate. All differences indicated that puffins avoided gulls. Sites differing in gull numbers did not differ, however, in puffin fledging success or weights of fledged chicks. Chick weights and fledging success were low. The pattern of weight gain by chicks was irregular over the season, although consistent among sites for individual periods. These results imply that food usually was hard to find, although occasionally locally abundant. Pressures on puffin reproductive efforts due to variation in food supply and levels of kleptoparasitism do not appear to be additive; rather, low food availability decreases the effect of gull kleptoparasitism as well.

Behavioural responses of Common Puffins to kleptoparasitism by Herring Gulls

1987 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake Rice
Keyword(s):  
Food Supply ◽  
Larus Argentatus ◽  
Foraging Success ◽  
Food Loss ◽  
Behavioural Responses ◽  
Herring Gulls ◽  
Nest Sites ◽  
Fratercula Arctica ◽  
Slope Topography ◽  
Potential Food

Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) varied their rates of kleptoparasitic attack depending on Common Puffin (Fratercula arctica) foraging success. Attacks were more frequent on days when many puffins brought back food. However, puffins also varied their behaviour when approaching nest sites with food, so the rate of food loss to gulls per puffin remained constant as the number of puffins with food increased. Site differences in puffin activities after landing reflected only direct consequences of puffin and gull abundances and slope topography. After chick provisioning commenced, puffins at all sites showed increased vigilance after landing and more rapid burrow entries. Behaviour of puffins when approaching the slopes showed adaptations to the presence of gulls. On days when many puffins had food, puffins in areas of high gull density swamped the kleptoparasite. On days when few had food, puffins approached the slopes much as they did before chick provisioning commenced. Hosts as well as kleptoparasites may show closely tuned adaptations to potential food supply and likelihood of attacks.

Brood size manipulations in herring gulls

1977 ◽  
Vol 55 (10) ◽  
pp. 1762-1766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard T. Haymes ◽  
Ralph D. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Brood Size ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Natural Food ◽  
Herring Gull ◽  
Chick Survival ◽  
Fledging Success ◽  
Herring Gulls

Herring gull broods were artificially increased to four and five chicks while others were reduced to one chick. The growth rates of chicks and chick weights at fledging were similar among all control and experimental broods. The experimentally increased brood sizes had a slightly higher fledging success than control broods, and the fledging success of one-chick experimental broods was higher than that of one-chick control broods. Thus, chick survival was not reduced in larger brood sizes and the number of young fledged per pair of adults increased with brood size. Further. chicks in large broods were at no weight (or viability) disadvantage despite the presence of a larger number of brood mates. We conclude that food was not limiting either the growth rate or fledging success of chicks from broods larger than the modal clutch size, and suggest that parents used local, abundant, artificial food sources in addition to their natural food supply.

scholarly journals The herring gull Larus argentatus as a likely transmitting agent of Salmonella montevideo to sheep and cattle

1983 ◽  
Vol 91 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Coulson ◽  
J. Butterfield ◽  
C. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Feeding Behaviour ◽  
Circumstantial Evidence ◽  
Larus Argentatus ◽  
Herring Gull ◽  
Breeding Area ◽  
Original Source ◽  
Herring Gulls ◽  
Wintering Area

SUMMARYThis paper presents evidence for the involvement of herring gulls (Larus argentatus) as vectors in the recent outbreaks of Salmonella montevideo in sheep and cattle in Scotland and suggests that the transfer can take place over considerable distances. The breeding area in Scotland of herring gulls which overwinter in N.E. England is remarkably similar to the geographical distribution of the outbreaks. This pattern, together with the feeding behaviour of herring gulls on farmland, the presence of S. montevideo in herring gulls just before their departure from the wintering area and the timing of the return just before the peak of outbreaks are all circumstantial evidence implicating this gull in the outbreaks. The rapid return of these gulls to their breeding areas means that S. montevideo can be transported long distances in one day and raises the possibility that the original source of S. montevideo could have been in N. E. England rather than in Scotland.

Habitat and breeding cycle of the Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla) on Sable Island, Nova Scotia

1983 ◽  
Vol 61 (12) ◽  
pp. 2880-2898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward H. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Parental Behavior ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Species Range ◽  
Larus Argentatus ◽  
Breeding Cycle ◽  
Herring Gulls ◽  
Egg Incubation ◽  
Breeding Failure

Sable Island, Nova Scotia, is the southernmost significant nesting area of the Least Sandpiper. Many birds nest around a single pond complex, which supports a lush vegetation that is heavily grazed by horses. Nests occur there and in nearby dry, sparsely vegetated habitat. Birds start arriving by mid-May (males first), and clutches (including replacement clutches) are completed in a period of 4–5 weeks, from late May to late June. Most eggs are laid in the morning, at intervals averaging 1.2 days. Incubation increases gradually through laying and is ~100% beginning with the last egg. Incubation lasts 20–21 days. Nest and chick mortality is high, mostly due to predation by Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus). Mortality of siblings is contagious. Females which nest successfully begin to migrate south by late June, followed by successful males in early July; individuals of both sexes are seen for about 3 days after the completion of parental behavior. Unsuccessful breeders leave earlier, and fledglings later. On average, males are seen for about 10 days and females for about 7 days following final breeding failure. Adults and fledglings tend to flock assortatively in late summer. General features of the breeding cycle seem to be highly conservative throughout the species' range.

Responsiveness of young herring gulls to stimuli from their own and other species: effects of training with food

1979 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 1452-1457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger M. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Normal Development ◽  
Larus Argentatus ◽  
Herring Gull ◽  
Vocal Responses ◽  
Herring Gulls ◽  
Species Effects ◽  
Initial Tendency ◽  
Food Conditioning

Young herring gulls (Larus argentatus) are known to emit vocalizations and approach their mew-calling parents when the latter return lo the colony with food for their chicks. In contrast, laboratory-reared young deprived of experience with adults approach and vocalize only rarely lo parental mew calls, although they will respond more strongly to the mew calls of two other species. These results suggest that posthatch experience, such as receipt of food from a calling parent, may be important for the normal development of responses to species typical calls. I tested the effects of food training by exposing young herring gulls, in the laboratory, lo mew calls during feedings. By 7 days of age, responses to herring gull calls increased significantly for young trained with these calls, and the initial tendency for the young to respond selectively to mew calls of the ring-billed gull (L. delawarensis) was reversed. Food training also influenced approach and vocal responses to a visual stimulus (my hand) used to deliver food. Results suggest that approach and vocal responses of young herring gulls may be strongly and adaptively influenced by food conditioning during the first few days after hatching.

scholarly journals Health of Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) in Relation to Breeding Location in the Early 1990s. III. Effects on the Bone Tissue

2008 ◽  
Vol 71 (21) ◽  
pp. 1448-1456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen A. Fox ◽  
Rebecca Lundberg ◽  
Carolina Wejheden ◽  
Lars Lind ◽  
Sune Larsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bone Tissue ◽  
Larus Argentatus ◽  
Herring Gulls ◽  
Breeding Location

Development of temperature regulation in young birds: evidence for a vocal regulatory mechanism in two species of gulls (Laridae)

1994 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myra O. Wiebe ◽  
Roger M. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Body Temperature ◽  
Temperature Regulation ◽  
Regulatory Mechanism ◽  
Mammalian Species ◽  
Larus Argentatus ◽  
Herring Gulls ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Larus Delawarensis ◽  
Regulate Body Temperature

Endothermic thermoregulation is absent in birds until after hatching, and usually requires several hours or days to become fully functional in the young. Cold-induced vocalizations that elicit brooding by a cooperative parent or surrogate constitute an additional thermoregulatory mechanism potentially available to neonates of some avian and probably some mammalian species. We show that newly hatched ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis) and herring gulls (Larus argentatus) exposed in the laboratory to moderate chilling (20 °C) had a significantly improved ability to regulate body temperature when rewarmed (34 °C) for brief, 4-min periods in response to cold-induced vocalizations. Spontaneous calling by unchilled yoked controls was ineffective in maintaining body temperature. When chicks reached 3 days of age, vocally regulated temperaturee did not differ from that attained by thermogenesis, but vocally induced periods of rewarming reduced the duration of temperature challenge. The ability to regulate body temperature through vocalizations precedes the development of endothermy in gulls and other species so far examined, and in some species extends functional thermoregulation back to the late embryonic (pipped egg) stage of development.

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