Ivory Gull
Pagophila eburnea

f11 @ 1/400s, ISO:1000, Nikon D300S w 300mm and 1.4X teleconverter


"Ivory Gull," Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. In 2012 the total population of ivory gulls was estimated to be between 19,000 and 27,000 individuals. The majority of these were in Russia with 2,500–10,000 along the Arctic coastline, 4,000 on the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago and 8,000 on Franz Josef Land and Victoria Island. There were also estimated to be around 4,000 individuals in Greenland and in the years 2002–03, 500–700 were recorded in Canada. Examination of data collected on an icebreaker plying between Greenland and Svalbard between 1988 and 2014, by Claude Joiris of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, found a sevenfold fall in ivory gull numbers after 2007. The species is rapidly declining in Canada, while in other parts of its range its population is poorly known. The Canadian population in the early 2000s were approximately 80% lower than in the 1980s. Illegal hunting may be one of the causes of the decline in the Canadian population, and a second cause may be the decline in sea ice. Ivory gulls breed near to sea ice and the loss may make it difficult to feed their chicks. The species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as "Near Threatened."
Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, Norway
 
08/06/2010