Factors affecting recruitment age and recruitment probability in the Western Gull Larus occidentalis

Abstract

We studied recruitment age (i.e. the age that a gull bred for the first time) and the probability that an adult reproduced during its life in three cohorts of Western Gulls Larus occidentalis breeding on southeast Farallon Island. We examined the effects of sex, hatching date, hatching order, brood size and annual variation in food supply during the recruitment period. Modal recruitment ages of males and females were 4 and 5 years, respectively, a difference that was significant. None of the factors examined, including hatching date, hatching order and brood size, had a significant effect on recruitment age. The probability of breeding in males who experienced low food supply in their fourth and fifth years was lower than that of males who experienced favourable food supply in their fourth and fifth years. Recruitment probability (the proportion of the sample group that recruited among those available to recruit during a given year) of 4‐ and 5‐year‐old males was lower in the food‐poor 1983 El Nino than in years of favourable food supply. The only variable affecting recruitment probability of females was age: recruitment probability was greater among 5‐year‐olds than 4‐year‐olds. Recruitment age in males was more sensitive to annual variation in food supply, probably because females have more difficulty recruiting due to an excess of adult females in the population and because of the different roles in reproduction in which males are primarily responsible for provisioning chicks and maintaining the territory.