Effects of egg harvest on egg laying of Glaucous-winged Gulls Larus glaucescens

Subsistence harvest of wild bird eggs is a traditional activity across many parts of Alaska. We examined the impact of egg collection on Glaucous-winged Gulls Larus glaucescens nesting on Alaska's Copper River Delta by comparing egg laying patterns across two experimental plots. In one plot, we manually removed eggs from incomplete clutches and in the other we walked through the plot to create disturbance. Gulls in this study did not appear to increase the number of eggs laid to compensate for eggs experimentally removed from their nests, with only 10 % of gull pairs completing a full clutch following nest manipulation.