About 30 protected red-billed gulls were killed as two cars and a quad bike hooned around the Royal Albatross Centre car park for about three hours early on Saturday. The gull colony at Taiaroa Head had grown significantly over the past 10 years — increasing by 1000 pairs — and was the only red-billed gull colony in New Zealand that was not declining. Whether the drivers were intentionally targeting the protected species or not, the entire headland was a seabird colony, he said. Years of conservation work supported not only Dunedin's northern royal albatross and the red-billed gulls but more than 20 species of seabirds, he said. Red-billed gulls were more threatened than the northern royal albatrosses that bred on the peninsula, he said.

Source: New Zealand Herald February 07, 2021 20:03 UTC