SYDNEY, July 21 (Xinhua) --
Seagulls have hit record numbers in Australia's Tasmania island state, baffling
ornithologists and animal watchers who also highlighted the birds' changing
food supply and nesting areas, latest conservation group figures showed.
All major gull species in the
southern state's southeast area have increased significantly, with a nearly 200
percent rise in Pacific gulls from last year's numbers to surpass 1,000 birds,
according to bird conservation group Birdlife Tasmania's annual winter gull
count reported late this week.
Silver gulls recorded the
second-highest population in more than three decades, at about 16,000 birds,
the group's Eric Woehler told local media.
The exact cause of the record
number of seabirds, some of which can live for 30 years, was not known, said
Woehler.
"Every year the gulls
surprise us ... The different species respond differently to the
environment," the ABC radio channel in state capital Hobart quoted him as
saying.
The seabirds were also shifting
away from dwindling food sources scavenged from rubbish dumps to feed in other
spots including fish farms in water channels, said Woehler.
Seagull nesting areas were
similarly changing amid their rising numbers.
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