Seagulls pinching your chips at the beach could become a thing of the past.
The seagull population has rapidly declined over the past three decades and experts are warning they may become completely extinct unless more is done.
Seagull numbers in New Zealand have declined by around 80 percent in the last three decades – that puts them in the same endangered category as some species of kiwi.
There are fewer than 100,000 of the coastal red-billed gulls, while the number of inland black-billed gulls has dropped below 30,000.
"If the trend continues you may be lucky to have any gulls around trying to pinch your fish and chips," says Hugh Robertson from the Department of Conservation.
Cats and stoats are their biggest threat, but agricultural changes such as more irrigation and less ploughing on more and more dairy farms is affecting black-billed gulls, and a change in sea currents and depleted foods sources is affecting the red-billed gull.
Bird expert Nick Ledgard says people shouldn't just see them as a common seagull.
"They're one of our commoner native birds that we see around Rangiora… but our grandchildren won't see them if we don't do something about it, the way they're going. That's the major thing," says Mr Ledgard.
The Ornithological Society is now studying colonies of gulls around the country to see if we will still have the common seagull stealing chips on our beaches in 50 years.
3 News
source: newshub archive
