Abstract
The Yellow-legged Gull Larus michahellis is generally considered to be sedentary and dispersive, with long-distance dispersal of young birds developing after the 1970s. In this paper, we present the analysis of the movement of the Yellow-legged Gulls from the eastern Adriatic coast based on observations of colour-ringed birds marked between 1999 and 2011. A total of 4,114 sightings of 1,559 Yellow-legged Gulls marked as chicks were analysed. Our results showed a clear preference in the direction of the movement of Yellow-legged Gulls and significant differences in the directions of movements and the longitude of the observation sites of birds from different colonies. During summer and autumn, the majority of gulls moved towards the north, to the Baltic and North Sea coasts. Maximum distances covered (1,958 km for juveniles and 1,380 km for adults) were much greater than for the other studied populations of the Yellow-legged Gull. We found no difference between the directions of the movement among age classes, while distances decreased with age. Three important features: long-distance movements, migratoriness of adults and differences in movements between colonies, do not support the theory that post-breeding movements of the Yellow-legged Gull have been recently developed as the result of population increase. We presume that the recent pattern of movements reflects the evolutionary history of the Yellow-legged Gulls and might be inherited or result from experience and have been transferred by learning between generations among birds from the same colony.
Zusammenfassung
Ausgedehnte Wanderungen von adriatischen Mittelmeermöwen Larus michahellis nach der Brut
Die Mittelmeermöwe Larus michahellis wird allgemein als umherstreifender Standvogel betrachtet, bei dem Jungvögel nach den 1970er Jahren die Ausbreitung über lange Strecken entwickelten. In diesem Artikel präsentieren wir eine Analyse der Bewegungen von Mittelmeermöwen von der östlichen Adriaküste, basierend auf der Beobachtung von Vögeln, die zwischen 1999 und 2011 farbberingt wurden. Insgesamt wurden 4114 Sichtungen von 1559 Mittelmeermöwen, die als Küken markiert worden waren, ausgewertet. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigten eine klare Präferenz in den Bewegungsrichtungen der Möwen sowie signifikante Unterschiede in den Bewegungsrichtungen und der geographischen Länge der Beobachtungsorte von Vögeln aus verschiedenen Kolonien. Im Sommer und Herbst wanderten die meisten Möwen gen Norden an die Ost- und Nordseeküste. Die maximal zurückgelegten Entfernungen (1958 km für Jungvögel und 1380 km für Altvögel) waren deutlich größer als für die anderen bislang untersuchten Populationen der Mittelmöwe. Die Bewegungsrichtung unterschied sich nicht zwischen verschiedenen Altersgruppen, während die Entfernung mit zunehmendem Alter abnahm. Drei wichtige Merkmale – Langstreckenbewegungen, „Zugwilligkeit“von Altvögeln und Unterschiede in den Bewegungen zwischen Kolonien – stützen nicht die Theorie, dass sich die Bewegungen der Mittelmeermöwe nach der Brut erst vor kurzem als Folge des Populationsanstiegs entwickelt haben. Wir nehmen an, dass das rezente Bewegungsmuster die Evolutionsgeschichte der Mittelmeermöwen widerspiegelt und entweder ererbt sein könnte oder aus Erfahrung resultiert und durch Lernen von Generation zu Generation innerhalb einer Kolonie weitergegeben wird.
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Acknowledgments
We are very grateful to licensed ringers who took part in Yellow-legged Gull colour-ringing programme: V. Bartovsky, T. Blažev, I. Budinski, J. Dolinšek, B. Ende, D. Gatolin, D. Grlica, L. Jurinović, A. Karanušić, K. Leskovar, I. Lolić, M. Malatestinić, K. Mandić, K. Mikulić, G. Piasevoli, A. Radalj, D. Radović, Z. Ružanović, L. Šupraha and V. Šćetarić. Ringing was conducted in accordance with permits issued by the Croatian Ministry of Culture–Directorate for Nature Protection. From 1999 to 2007, colour-rings were provided by the Voorne Bird Observatory in the Netherlands as part of their European-wide gull colour-ringing project. This study would not be possible without the numerous observers who spent much time on rubbish-heaps, harbours and other favourite gull spots, reading rings and submitting the observations. They cannot all be named, but we want to express our sincere gratitude to colleagues who collected and processed numerous ring-readings from their respective countries: Adriano Talamelli (Italy), Wolfgang Schweighofer (Austria) and Karcsa Zsolt (Hungary). We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
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Communicated by N. Chernetsov.
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Kralj, J., Barišić, S., Ćiković, D. et al. Extensive post-breeding movements of Adriatic Yellow-legged Gulls Larus michahellis . J Ornithol 155, 399–409 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-013-1020-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-013-1020-x