Low Body Mass of Juvenile Ross's Gulls Rhodostethia rosea in the Laptev Sea

Four juvenile Ross's gulls Rhodostethia rosea were trapped on the New Siberian Islands in the Laptev Sea in early August 1994, allowing data collection on body mass and morphometrics from a poorly known part of the species' annual cycle. The wings of juvenile birds were shorter than those...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ARCTIC
Main Authors: Lindström, Åke, Bensch, Staffan, Jönsson, Paul Eric
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: The Arctic Institute of North America 1998
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/64125
Description
Summary:Four juvenile Ross's gulls Rhodostethia rosea were trapped on the New Siberian Islands in the Laptev Sea in early August 1994, allowing data collection on body mass and morphometrics from a poorly known part of the species' annual cycle. The wings of juvenile birds were shorter than those previously reported for adults, but their bill length and tarsus length were similar. Their average body mass (128 g) was very low, suggesting that some juvenile Ross's gulls have only very small energy reserves left after post-breeding dispersal, which in this case was at least 300 km. Au début d'août 1994, la capture de quatre mouettes rosées (Rhodostethia rosea) juvéniles dans l'archipel de Nouvelle-Sibérie situé dans la mer des Laptev, a permis de recueillir des données morphométriques ainsi que des données sur la masse corporelle d'une partie mal connue du cycle annuel de l'espèce. Les ailes des oiseaux juvéniles étaient plus courtes que celles des adultes mesurées précédemment, mais la longueur de leur bec et de leur tarse étaient identiques. La moyenne peu élevée (128 g) de la masse corporelle suggère que certaines des mouettes rosées juvéniles ne possèdent que de très faibles réserves d'énergie juste après la dispersion qui suit la saison des nids, dispersion qui dans ce cas était d'au moins 300 km.