Chapters authored
Between the Land and Sea: How Yellow-Legged Gulls Have Changed Their Dependence on Marine Food in Relation to Landfill Management
The Basque region (Spain) is closing all its open-air landfills, which hence provides an excellent chance to account for the effects on the trophic and spatial ecology of the local yellow-legged gulls Larus michahellis, which highly depend on refuse tips to forage. The closure of several landfills across the region was mainly compensated by a higher intake of terrestrial food (mainly earthworms), though only in summer. The exploitation of terrestrial prey was marginal in winter, and seasonal trophic differences emerged, unlike findings when landfills were still open. With only one landfill now open in theory, movement and territory use analyses showed that two landfills were frequently visited. Positions at two of the target foraging habitats (landfills, pastures) summed ca. 10% of all stationary positions suggesting that, at least in these habitats, gulls seemed to invest a relatively small amount of time, which might support the idea that they were able to obtain food in a fast way and, probably, from resources that they know well and have a predictable temporal distribution.
Part of the book: Seabirds