On the Importance of Refuse Dumps as a Food Source for Wintering Herring Gulls Larus argentatus Pont.

1974 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Kihlman ◽  
Lars Larsson
Keyword(s):  
Food Source ◽  
Larus Argentatus ◽  
Herring Gulls ◽  
Refuse Dumps

scholarly journals Herring gulls respond to human gaze direction

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 20190405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine Goumas ◽  
Isabella Burns ◽  
Laura A. Kelley ◽  
Neeltje J. Boogert
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Feeding Behaviour ◽  
Food Source ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Larus Argentatus ◽  
Herring Gull ◽  
Herring Gulls ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Human Wildlife Conflict

Human–wildlife conflict is one of the greatest threats to species populations worldwide. One species facing national declines in the UK is the herring gull ( Larus argentatus ), despite an increase in numbers in urban areas. Gulls in urban areas are often considered a nuisance owing to behaviours such as food-snatching. Whether urban gull feeding behaviour is influenced by human behavioural cues, such as gaze direction, remains unknown. We therefore measured the approach times of herring gulls to a food source placed in close proximity to an experimenter who either looked directly at the gull or looked away. We found that only 26% of targeted gulls would touch the food, suggesting that food-snatching is likely to be conducted by a minority of individuals. When gulls did touch the food, they took significantly longer to approach when the experimenter's gaze was directed towards them compared with directed away. However, inter-individual behaviour varied greatly, with some gulls approaching similarly quickly in both treatments, while others approached much more slowly when the experimenter was looking at them. These results indicate that reducing human–herring gull conflict may be possible through small changes in human behaviour, but will require consideration of behavioural differences between individual gulls.

scholarly journals The herring gull Larus argentatus as a carrier of salmonella

1983 ◽  
Vol 91 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Butterfield ◽  
J. C. Coulson ◽  
Susan V. Kearsey ◽  
Patricia Monaghan ◽  
J. H. McCoy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Source ◽  
Health Hazard ◽  
Larus Argentatus ◽  
First Year ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
Resting Sites ◽  
Herring Gulls ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Untreated Sewage ◽  
Potential Health Hazard

SUMMARYThe proportion of salmonella carriers among town-nesting herring gulls increased significantly from 2·1% in 1975–6 to 8·4% in 1979. The range of serotypes carried by herring gulls was similar to that causing infection in man, and it is likely that the gulls ingest these serotypes when feeding at untreated sewage outfalls on the coast. This is supported by the proportion of salmonella carriers being higher among first-year birds (9·7%) than among older birds (2·0%), as it is known that higher proportions of immature herring gulls feed on the coast. Herring gulls carrying salmonellas appeared healthy at the time of capture and at a later date it was assumed that they were not themselves infected. However, their habit of congregating in large numbers on reservoirs and rubbish tips and also at resting sites on farmland often far from feeding and roosting areas, multiplies thejpollution problem and increases the potential health hazard for both man and farm stock. Herring gulls feed at a variety of sites and fly many miles from food source to food source and from feeding areas to the roost. Thus, even within the same day, there is the possibility of the transfer of salmonellas over a much wider area than previously considered.

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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