Chicago Continues Effort to Manage & Study Gull Population
Release Date: 05/08/08
The City of Chicago and the Chicago Park District are partnering to implement an integrated Ring-billed Gull Management Program, addressing the nuisances caused by gulls throughout Chicago.
The program incorporates an integrated approach to managing gulls by reducing access to food sources, keeping them off beaches and other public places with physical barriers, reducing the production of gulls at two colonies, and a monitoring component to determine where the gulls originate.
“The gull management program can help us balance the needs between visitors to Chicago parks and beaches while addressing the Ring-billed Gull population in practical and environmentally friendly ways,” said Suzanne Malec-McKenna, Department of Environment Commissioner.
The regional population of Ring-billed Gulls has increased dramatically in recent decades. The high number of gulls in public areas leads to problems ranging from nuisance to property damage and economic losses. Studies by the USGS have suggested a link between fecal droppings from gulls and Escherichia coli in the lake. A Lake County Health Department study of five beaches found that more than half of the E coli bacteria in water samples collected were identified as avian in origin. A 2004 Universityof Chicago study estimated the City experiences $2.4 million in damages from swim bans.
The Park District will be continuing their efforts to reduce food sources by setting out covered trash and recycling containers, installing signs urging the public not to feed gulls and utilizing border collies as a Ring-billed gull harassment technique, and daily beach grooming practices.
“The Park District strives to provide clean and safe beaches and parks for all to enjoy,” said Timothy J. Mitchell, Chicago Park District General Superintendent & CEO. “We are urging beach and park patrons to lend a helping hand in our efforts to mitigate nuisance species by keeping our beaches and parks clean and to avoid feeding wildlife.”
The City’s Department of the Environment has, for the second year in a row, requested Wildlife Services, a program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to reduce the reproduction of ring-billed gulls by oiling eggs and to mark and observe gulls locally and regionally to see where they travel. Like last year, over several weeks, Wildlife Services biologists will coat gull eggs with biodegradable corn oil, which prevents hatching. The oil will not harm adult gulls, other wildlife or the environment.
A percentage of the gulls from two colonies in Chicago and colonies in East Chicago, Indiana will be marked with non-toxic dye of various colors and observed throughout the summer at beaches and other places of high concentration. The purpose of the marking and observing is to determine where gulls on Chicago’s lakefront originated to aid in the development of long-term management strategies.
“People should not expect that one or two years of limiting hatchling numbers will immediately reduce conflicts with gulls. Gulls live a long time, generally returning to the area where they hatched once they are old enough to breed,” explained Scott Beckerman, State Director for Wildlife Services.
In 2007, oiling the eggs reduced Chicago’s hatch-year gull numbers by 35,000 birds without resulting in abandonment or relocation of the nest colonies. Nearby landowners, such as Navy Pier, reported fewer gull-related conflicts and nuisances. Ring-billed gull populations in the region have been increasing drastically over the last few decades; the regional population is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands.
One of the most effective steps the public can take to help is to not feed wildlife and to dispose of food and litter into proper trash receptacles. Similar to last year, the regional birding community will be asked to report sightings of color-marked birds.
USDA Wildlife Services
Wildlife Services, a program in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, seeks to reduce conflicts and damage between humans and wildlife. Begun primarily to work with agricultural concerns, Wildlife Services now conducts research and projects related to aircraft/wildlife strikes and wildlife-borne diseases, among other concerns.
Ring-Billed Gull Background
As the name implies, adult Ring-billed gulls are distinguished by the black ring around their bill, as well as by their yellow legs and feet. They have adapted well to the urban Chicago environment where parks, parking lots and the lakefront provide open environments the birds prefer, with few, if any, predators. Ring-billed gulls will scavenge food from garbage, as well as eat insects, fish, and even the eggs and young of other birds.
Ring-billed gulls did not begin breeding in northern Illinois until the mid- 1970s. Adult Ring-billed gulls can live 10 to 15 years, nest in large colonies, and usually return to nest near where they were hatched. The number and size of the colonies has increased dramatically over the last 30 years, and the breeding populations now number in the tens of thousands. Females lay about three light brown- to olive-tinted eggs with dark markings, which hatch in about three weeks.
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