Taxon name
Larus cachinnans
Pallas, 1811
Uploaded by
National Red List Database
Taxonomic information
Scientific name
Larus cachinnans
Pallas, 1811
Assessed taxon level
Species
Higher level taxonomic groupings
Vertebrates
Birds
Species authority
Pallas, 1811
Taxonomic notes and synonyms listed
L. michahellis and L. armenicus (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) were previously lumped as L. michahellis following a review by the BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group. Prior to that, L. armenicus had been split and;L. cachinnans (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) had been lumped with L. michahellis as L. cachinnans following Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993).
Location and scope
Specific locality or subnational name or regional name
United Arab Emirates (the)
Scope (of the Assessment)
National
Countries included within the scope of the assessment
United Arab Emirates (the)
Does the assessment cover a marine EEZ area(s)?
Not_assigned
Conservation Status
Qualifying criteria (if given)
D
Criteria system used
IUCN
(see Assessment details)
Assessment rationale/justification
This species potentially has a very small non-breeding population in the UAE, which qualifies it for listing as Endangered. Land conversion is likely to be impacting its wetland habitats within the UAE, and so the species is precautionarily retained as Endangered at the national level.
Assessment details
Assessors/contributors/reviewers listed
UAE National Red List Workshop
Criteria system used
IUCN
Reference for methods given
IUCN. 2012. IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1, Second edition. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. iv + 32pp pp. And IUCN. 2012. Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional and National Levels: Version 4.0. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: IUCN. iii + 41pp.
Further information
Endemism (according to assessment)
Endemic to region
Not assigned
Taxon distribution as listed in assessment
Between September and April, this species is uncommon to locally fairly common along the coast of the UAE (Richardson 1990, Pedersen et al. 2017). The majority of occurrences of this species are likely to be of migrant individuals on passage to and from the breeding grounds as well as of wintering birds (Pedersen et al. 2017). Taxonomic confusion and difficult identification makes the precise distribution uncertain.
Is there a map available in assessment?
Yes
Habitat and systems
Ecological system type
Habitat
Habitat details as listed in assessment
This species inhabits coastal waters and is found at fishing harbours and lagoons. Occasionally, it forages further inland in cultivated fields, along rivers and especially at refuse dumps and sewage treatment plants (Richardson 1990, del Hoyo et al. 1996, Snow and Perrins 1998, Olsen and Larsson 2003). There is not much known about the species ecology in the UAE; thus most of the following information refers to its global distribution range during the non-breeding season. Its diet consists of fish, invertebrates, reptiles, small mammals, refuse, offal, and bird eggs and chicks (del Hoyo et al. 1996, Snow and Perrins 1998, Olsen and Larsson 2003). Outside of the breeding season, the species is gregarious. It is fully migratory. It returns to the breeding grounds in central Asia around April, where it breeds colonially (Richardson 1990, del Hoyo et al. 1996).
Threats and conservation measures listed
Threats listed in assessment
The most relevant threats to this species within UAE are potentially from wetland land-use changes, and possibly oil pollution at coastal sites, bycatch and marine debris (plastic) at sea, although the severity of these threats is essentially unknown.Individuals that visit UAE may also be impacted upon by other threats. It has been reported that colonies in the east of the global range are frequently raided for eggs and the species is hunted in the Ukraine (Rudenko 2006, Burger et al. 2018). It has also, previously been culled to protect other Larus species, however this has not been recorded recently. Numerous small oil spills have been reported to cause mortality in the species, for example in Azerbaijan (Burger et al. 2018), though this appears to have minimal impact on the population trend.
History
The population size is thought to have been the same in 1996, and so it would have received the same Red List status.
Publication
Burfield, I.J., Westrip, J., Sheldon, R.D., Hermes, C., Wheatley, H., Smith, D., Harding, K.A. Allen, D.J. and Alshamsi, O. 2021. UAE National Red List of Birds. Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
