The Importance of Human Refuse as a Food Source for Silver Gulls Larus novaehollandiae

Abstract

Analysis of regurgitations from Silver Gulls Larus novaehollandiae revealed that only 18% of items were of natural derivation, 82% from human refuse. The proportion of natural food changed through the breeding season, paralleling changes in the number of young chicks in marked plots, which reflected numbers in the colony as a whole.