The red-billed seagull is in rapid decline, causing concern for scientists and biodiversity experts. Photo / George Heard
The red-billed seagull is in rapid decline, causing concern for scientists and biodiversity experts. Photo / George Heard
The humble seagull is under threat, with red-billed colonies collapsing across New Zealand. A final seaside bastion is heading for wipeout, which scientists and biodiversity experts say is a major red flag over the health of our oceans. Katie Oliver reports.
They are the swooping, chip-stealing intruders marring manya Kiwi beachside barbecue or picnic.
But New Zealand’s seagull populations are vanishing and scientists and biodiversity experts say it’s something Kiwis should be taking notice of.
Red-billed seagulls have three main breeding colonies in New Zealand - Three Kings Islands, Mokuhinau Islands, and the Kaikōura Peninsula. On two of them, populations have almost collapsed.
The largest remaining - and fastest declining - colony is in Kaikōura.
Sabrina Luecht is a 39-year-old wildlife rehabilitator at Project Wellbird in Kaikōura.
“We know that the birds have declined to a point where the colony is fragmenting and shrinking … these birds could vanish within the next 10 years,” she said.
The humble red-billed seagull is under threat in New Zealand. Photo / Sabrina Eucht
Under the New Zealand Threat Classification System, red-billed seagulls are named “at risk - declining”. To put it into perspective, the North Island brown kiwi is classified as “not threatened”.
According to Luecht, seabirds are an indicator of ocean health. In other words, if seagulls are in trouble, it’s a serious worry for the wider ecosystem.
“I guess if you can imagine a bird that was once so common, declining so rapidly, that’s alarming … what we’re seeing now is about reduced ocean productivity,” she said.
Seagulls seem more visible than ever to the untrained eye, especially in Kaikōura. Luecht said that, in itself, is a problem.
“I think the most common feedback we get is that they seem more abundant because they’re more visible in urban areas,” she said.
“That means they’re more reliant on human-related scavenging because they’re not finding the food in their marine environment.”
Seagulls rely on krill to survive. As do whales, seals, penguins, and other species.
“If those aren’t occurring, they’re faced with starvation.”
Seagulls are starving and that’s why they’re heading to more urban environments.
“They’re not just chip stealers … they’re intelligent species forced to scavenge … that’s an adaptive behaviour,” Luecht said.
“It shows the level of desperation these birds are being pushed to.”
A Kaikōura red-billed seagull colony. Photo / Deborah Mills
Heath Melville grew up in Kaikōura, surrounded by seagulls.
Like many kids in the small town, he would find creative ways to occupy his time.
On one occasion, he shot a seagull with his slug gun - a decision he quickly regretted.
“I realised it was a terrible idea,” Melville said.
“I felt sorry for it … that sort of sympathy grew through high school seeing some of the abuse by my classmates … that fuelled my sympathy further.”
Now based at the Tasman District Council, Melville is a former Environment Canterbury biodiversity adviser based in Kaikōura.
According to Melville, the plight of the seagull is a biodiversity issue that cannot be ignored.
He believes if more people cared about them, there would be a greater chance of saving them.
After years of observation, Melville has concluded the seagull is a lot more like us than we realise.
“I think their concepts of whānau are very much demonstrated by how they live together,” Melville said.
“They’re all, you know, bickering and carrying on giving each other a hard time one minute and then the next minute, they’ll just be chilling alongside each other.”
Scientist and Kaikōura legend Jim Mills has spent more than half his life studying the iconic seabird.
“I spent 55 years studying the red-billed gull on the Kaikoura Peninsula. I started when I was doing my master’s thesis at Canterbury University and continued with my PhD and never stopped,” he said.
At 83, he is still analysing data and writing papers.
Over the years, Mills has banded 47,003 birds, followed 26,537 nests, sighted and recorded banded birds 189,763 times and colour-banded 5089 birds of known age.
Scientist Jim Mills monitoring the red-billed seagull on Kaikōura Peninsula. Photo / Deborah Mills
During the breeding season, Mills and his wife, Deb, would be down at the peninsula eight hours a day, almost every day.
“Each day we would record the colour combinations of banded birds that we saw on the colonies. When any of the colour-marked birds nested, we would mark the nest ... and follow the fate of the nest,” Mills said.
His reports now make up one of the largest avian databases in the world.
He witnessed firsthand the Kaikōura colony shrink by 51 per cent between 1983 and 2003. That decline has continued each year since then.
Jim Mills could often be seen getting dive-bombed by gulls at the Kaikōura colony. Photo / Deborah Mills
Overall, Mills found that introduced predators, especially cats and ticks, were a major contributor to their dwindling population.
He said a sure sign of ticks is when the birds appear friendly and can be picked up.
“When they get ticks, the birds act drunk, they can’t fly. It’s the ticks causing the bird problems,” he said.
Mills would often take home the gulls that appeared tick-ridden. He’d remove the ticks - and within three days the bird would be healthy and released back to the wild.
An emaciated red-billed seagull in care at Project Wellbird, Kaikōura. Photo / Sabrina Eucht
Mills says his fondness for seagulls wasn’t always reciprocated, with his colony visits often being met with divebombs and screeching.
“They got used to me, knew who I was. They thought I was a predator,” he said.
Deb could often be seen by his side while he worked. She described, with a smile on her face, how the gulls would zero in on him as they walked down to the beach.
“The interesting thing is, as we left the carpark, the birds would spot Jim and come flying at him because they knew him from all those years ... everybody would be looking, like ‘why in the heck are those birds attacking just him?’” she said.
Whether they attacked him or not, Mills continued going out there each day. Deb said his work was about more than just research.
“Jim’s a scientist but at the same time, he became incredibly fond of the bird,” she said.
