Keeping gulls in check
THE POPULATION of yellowlegged gulls in the Salinas y Arenales regional park in San Pedro del Pinatar is being kept down by Murcia regional government.
The species’ principal breeding areas in this 856-hectare natural space are being monitored after a rapid growth in its population at the end of the last century, principally due to reduced human pressure on its colonies and greater availability of food, principally from landfills.
According to the regional secretary for sustainability, María Cruz Ferreira, the increasing yellow-legged gull population causes a drop in
the numbers of some other species which are considered a priority to conserve in the park, such as the little egret, pied avocet, Audouin’s gull,
gull-billed tern, common tern and little tern
It also displaces some of the breeding colonies of these more vulnerable species.
Moreover, they ‘can pose danger to the workers of the salt factory, who can have accidents on their motorcycle journeys along the paths around the lakes due to low flying yellow-legged gulls’, assured Sra Ferreira.
The control programme, which is cofinanced by the EU, includes eliminating nests and eggs on the principal paths and around the principal colonies of avocets and terns, as well as increasing checks around the edges of salt crystallisation pools, brine pools and the dunes along the beaches to the south of the port.
“Despite these limitations, the yellow-legged gulls are allowed to nest and reproduce in specific sectors and far away from other species of interest,” the regional secretary noted.