Population trend of wintering gulls in Kadalundi-Vallikkunnu Community Reserve, Southern India

Data on population trend of birds in stop-over sites is a prerequisite for managers to implement/execute species/ecosystem-oriented conservation programme. However, such data for wetland birds and their associated ecosystems is meagre/unavailable in India. At this juncture, population trend of gulls in Kadalundi-Vallikkunnu Community Reserve (KVCR) was evaluated on the basis of primary and secondary data collected between 1989 and 2009. Data of 1,26,103 birds belonging to five species were recorded during the study. During 2005-2009, Black-headed Gull and Brown-headed Gull were dominant species, while Pallas's Gull and Slender-billed Gull were lesser in number. In response to data on observation made during 1989, population of scavenging gulls viz., Black-headed Gull and Brown-headed Gull was increased to 165 and 135 % respectively, while the population of specialist gulls such as Pallas's Gull and Slender-billed Gull found to be stable oron decline. Increasing trend ofscavenging gulls and declining pattern of specialist gulls could be attributed to the consequences of habitat loss and other anthropogenic pressure (over-fishing, mining, pro-human developmental activities and dumping of poultry wastes) in KVCR. Site-specific conservation measures need to be undertaken across the stop-over sites in the West and East Coast of India to conserve this vital habitat in the Central Asian Flyway.