Gulls and garbage: the ecology, behaviour and physiology of a human-wildlife conflict

为了应对日益城市化的世界，许多动物迅速适应了建筑环境。这包括英国的两种海鸥，鲱鱼和较小的黑背鸥，它们越来越多地在人类附近筑巢和觅食。这导致越来越多的骚扰和滋扰报告，包括直接攻击、对飞机的危害和病原体传播以及随后的控制努力。这是有问题的，因为这两个物种目前正在经历人口下降。拟议的项目采取多学科的方法来了解鲱鱼和较小的黑背鸥适应人为环境的行为和生理机制，重点是早期生活经验的作用。早期的生活经历可能对许多特征产生重大的终身影响。虽然这可能是特别相关的海鸥提供他们的小鸡越来越多的饮食来源于城市地区，这还没有被研究到目前为止。例如，营养质量较低的饮食以及与城市觅食有关的应激激素水平的变化可能导致雏鸡生理和行为发育的变化。对其他物种的研究表明，这种模式可能会导致后代的“发育编程”，以便他们在以后的生活中更好地科普特定的环境。对于越来越多地使用城市地区的海鸥来说，这可能对种群动态产生强烈的影响，但这还没有被研究过。该跨学科项目旨在：1。确定在沿海和城市环境中繁殖的鸟类在多大程度上利用人为地点进行喂养，以及由此产生的饮食差异如何影响鸡蛋激素水平和小鸡的生理应激反应。2.确定在不同环境中孵化的个体之间的行为和生理差异的性质和后果，特别是雏鸟科普陌生环境的能力，以及这对小鸡发育和青少年觅食行为的影响。3.建立一个模型，预测不同环境中早期生活经历的变化（例如饮食和随后的生理和行为差异）如何影响晚年生活中的场地使用和由此产生的种群动态。

In response to an increasingly urbanised world, many animals have rapidly adapted to living in built-up environments. This includes two species of gull in the UK, herring- and lesser black-backed gulls, which increasingly nest and forage in close proximity to humans. This has led to growing numbers of reports of disturbance and nuisance, including direct attacks, hazards to aircraft and pathogen transmission, and subsequent control efforts. This is problematic, as both species are currently undergoing population declines. The proposed project takes a multidisciplinary approach to understand the behavioural and physiological mechanisms underlying the adaptation of herring and lesser black-backed gulls to anthropogenic environments, focusing on the role of early life experience. Early life experiences can have significant life-long impacts on many traits. Although this may be particularly relevant for gulls provisioning their chicks with diets increasingly sourced from urban areas, this has not been studied to date. For example, both diets of lower nutritional quality as well as variation in stress hormone levels associated with urban foraging may lead to changes in physiological and behavioural development of chicks. Studies in other species have suggested that such patterns may lead to "developmental programming" of offspring, so that they cope better in particular environments in later life. For gulls making increasing use of urban areas this may have strong effects on population dynamics, but this has not been studied. The interdisciplinary project aims to: 1. Determine the extent to which birds breeding in coastal and urban environments utilise anthropogenic sites for feeding and how resultant dietary differences affect both egg hormone levels and physiological stress responses in chicks. 2. Determine the nature and consequences of behavioural and physiological differences between individuals hatching in different environments, specifically the ability of nestlings to cope with unfamiliar environments, and effects of this on chick development and foraging behaviour of juveniles. 3. Develop a model to predict how variation in early life experience (e.g. diet and subsequent physiological and behavioural differences) in different environments may affect site usage in later life and resulting population dynamics.