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Volume 47, No. 2

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Effects of egg harvest on egg laying of Glaucous-winged Gulls Larus glaucescens


Authors

ANNE L. SCHAEFER*, MARY ANNE BISHOP & KIRSTI JURICA

Citation

SCHAEFER, A.L., BISHOP, M.A. & JURICA, K. 2019. Effects of egg harvest on egg laying of Glaucous-winged Gulls Larus glaucescens. Marine Ornithology 47: 179 - 183

Received 18 March 2019, accepted 01 April 2019

Date Published: 2019/10/15
Date Online: 2019/06/20
Key words: Glaucous-winged Gulls, Larus glaucescens, egg harvest, subsistence,

Abstract

Subsistence harvest of wild bird eggs is a traditional activity across many parts of Alaska. We examined the impact of egg collection on Glaucous-winged Gulls Larus glaucescens nesting on Alaska's Copper River Delta by comparing egg laying patterns across two experimental plots. In one plot, we manually removed eggs from incomplete clutches and in the other we walked through the plot to create disturbance. Gulls in this study did not appear to increase the number of eggs laid to compensate for eggs experimentally removed from their nests, with only 10 % of gull pairs completing a full clutch following nest manipulation. 

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