Rubber bands as a simple tool to detect foraging ranges of gulls

Rubber pieces of different shapes were baked in dough and spread at four lo calities around a mixed breeding colony of Mew (Larus canus) and Herring (L . argentatus) gulls on the lower River Elbe, northern Germany. Of 100 rubbe r pieces, 23 were detected later in four Mew Gull pellets found in the colo ny The method is recommended as a means of studying the foraging ranges and potential feeding localities of gulls when trapping and marking of the bir ds is not possible (e.g. before incubation) or is likely to after their nat ural behavior.