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 Relict
Gull (Larus relictus) was not discovered until 1929. About 60
percent of the breeding individuals dwell in the Eerduosi National
Nature Reserve in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The conservation area
is listed as a Ramsar Site just like Inner Deep Bay and Mai Po in Hong Kong. The number
of relict gulls rose from under 2000 in early 90s to over 7000 in
late 90s. However, the number of nests found plummeted from 3684 in
2000 to just 326 in 2003.
The Conservancy Association conducted an onsite survey with the
management authority of the Eerduosi National Nature Reserve in June 2004. CA’s project manager, Lo Wai Yan
flew to the breeding ground of the relict gulls and to his dismay,
discovered that not a single nest was found within the conservation
area.
There is no doubt that the decline of number of nests is related to
climatic changes such as decrease in rainfall. But human
interference has made the situation from bad to worse. During the
survey, it was discovered that a privately operated
 eco-tourism
area had been established with the approval of the local government.
The breeding islands are with easy reach by the motorboats rented by
the operators of the eco-tourism area. Ironically, the theme of the
tourism area is no other than relict gull, as the population
dropped, models of the bird are placed on the beaches as a tourist
attraction. |
