Confirmation of a wintering ground of Ross's Gull Rhodostethia rosea in the northern Labrador Sea |
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| Authors: | Mark Maftei Shanti E Davis Mark L Mallory |
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| Affiliation: | 1. High Arctic Gull Research Group, Bamfield, BC, Canada;2. Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada;3. Department of Biology, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Ross's Gull Rhodostethia rosea is one of the world's least known seabirds; < 1% of the estimated global population can be accounted for at known breeding sites, and its wintering range has never been determined. Anecdotal reports over the last two centuries have prompted extensive speculation as to possible wintering areas used by this species in the north Pacific/Bering Sea region, but none has ever been confirmed. Using satellite and geolocator telemetry, we show that some Ross's Gulls from a colony in the Canadian Arctic winter in a restricted area of the northern Labrador Sea. Our discovery of a wintering area in the northwest Atlantic indicates that Ross's Gulls breeding in the Nearctic may be part of a disjunct population, or that birds breeding in the Palaearctic may winter off the east coast of North America. |
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| Keywords: | Canada high Arctic Labrador Sea migration
Rhodostethia rosea
Ross's Gull telemetry wintering area |
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