ARCTIC Food Habits of Glaucous Gulls in the Beaufort Sea

ABSTRACT. During 1973 and 1974,1877 regurgitated pellets were collected from 15 glaucous gull colonies on inland lakes, river deltas, and coastal reaches of the Beaufort Sea west and east of Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T. The pellets contained chiefly small rodents, fish, eggs and young of geeseand gulls, isop...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Samuel J. Barry, Thomas W. Barry
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
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Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.559.4593
http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/arctic43-1-43.pdf
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Summary:ABSTRACT. During 1973 and 1974,1877 regurgitated pellets were collected from 15 glaucous gull colonies on inland lakes, river deltas, and coastal reaches of the Beaufort Sea west and east of Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T. The pellets contained chiefly small rodents, fish, eggs and young of geeseand gulls, isopods, berries and grass, and blue mussels. The relative importance of these foods varied among the colonies, both within and between seasons. Predation on young waterfowl was moreextensive than predation on eggs. The data show that glaucous gulls are adaptable and opportunistic feeders and that the diversity of foods consumed was high and did not vary within the season.