birding-aus

Gulls and chips

Subject: Gulls and chips
From: "Evan Beaver" <>
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 14:12:22 +1100
What does "greater body condition" mean?  It sounds good, but obviously
it isn't.

I've heard 'condition' used in a general sense to refer to body fat
content, as in food stores. for example "The Grizzly Bear, after
gorging itself on Salmon for 3 months has plenty of condition to see
it through the long winter.

> Hobart's silver gull population is in decline, and it is
> possible the
> poorer diet may be one reason, along with better management of
> rubbish tips and greater competition from other larger gulls.

Not sure I understand that either.  They're suggesting that they're
living on stuff from tips that's not good for them, but are also
suggesting that they're being prevented from accessing that stuff by
better tip management.  Can't have it both ways.

My reading of this was that the population is in decline. There are 2
possible reasons, one being that they are eating badly and so have
higher mortality rates. The second is that previously the population
was being sustained by food taken from tips. In recent times tip
management has been improved, so the gulls have less access to food,
and are also dying.

EB



On 7/4/07, Peter Shute <> wrote:
 wrote on Wednesday, 4 July 2007 11:22
AM:

> Research shows that, as in humans, silver gulls supersizing on junk
> food are the poorer for it.
.
.
.
> There were physical differences too. "Urbanised gulls had greater
> body condition and were heavier than their non-urbanised
> counterparts. Across the genders, this meant a mass - or size -
> difference of about 10 per cent."

What does "greater body condition" mean?  It sounds good, but obviously
it isn't.
.
.
.
> Hobart's silver gull population is in decline, and it is
> possible the
> poorer diet may be one reason, along with better management of
> rubbish tips and greater competition from other larger gulls.

Not sure I understand that either.  They're suggesting that they're
living on stuff from tips that's not good for them, but are also
suggesting that they're being prevented from accessing that stuff by
better tip management.  Can't have it both ways.

Peter Shute
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

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--
Evan Beaver
Lapstone, Blue Mountains, NSW
lat=-33.77, lon=150.64
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