Internationally Endangered Horned Puffin Successfully Breeds for the 5th Time in Korea

Global Population Fewer Than 100 Individuals
7 Found on Yuksando, Yeonggwang-gun, Jeollanam-do... One Chick Confirmed to Have Hatched

A horned gull parent and chick (7 days after hatching) captured on May 18th among a flock of black-headed gulls.

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The horned gull, an internationally endangered species with a global population of fewer than 100 individuals, has successfully bred in South Korea.

On the 12th, the Ministry of Environment and the National Institute of Ecology announced that the horned gull successfully bred for the fifth time since 2016 on Yuksando Island in Yeonggwang-gun, Jeollanam-do.

The horned gull was first discovered on the uninhabited Yuksando Island during a natural environment survey of uninhabited islands conducted by the National Institute of Ecology in April 2016. Currently, the breeding sites of this species are limited worldwide to five islands in South Korea and China.

From March to April this year, a total of seven horned gulls visited Yuksando, and among them, one pair successfully bred one chick. This marks the fifth successful breeding since the domestic breeding site was identified in 2016.

The horned gull is a bird about which very little ecological information is available. It was presumed extinct for 63 years after 1937, but in 2000, four breeding pairs were rediscovered on Matsu Island in Fujian Province, China, and since then, small numbers of breeding individuals have been reported on some Chinese islands.

Since 2016, researchers at the National Institute of Ecology have installed closed-circuit television (CCTV) and unmanned sensor cameras, discovering that horned gulls arrive at the domestic breeding site at the end of March and begin laying eggs from mid-April to early May. They also confirmed the entire breeding process, including hatching after 25 to 27 days and leaving the breeding site by the end of July.

Using high-resolution photos taken on-site since last year, researchers analyzed the horned gull’s external characteristics such as beak color and shape, and changes in breeding plumage. They confirmed that the seven individuals visiting South Korea this year are the same as those that visited last year. One adult bird that did not breed this year and one chick were fitted with leg bands for individual identification. The National Institute of Ecology expects that ecological research on the horned gull, including its range of movement during the breeding period, survival rate, and site fidelity, will advance to the next level.

Along with basic ecological research on the horned gull, the National Institute of Ecology plans to focus on habitat protection to enable stable breeding and increase the population. Additionally, the research results to date will be presented online at the Asian Ornithological Congress to be held in Zhuhai, China, from November 8 to 10.

Yoo Ho, Director of the Natural Ecology Policy Division at the Ministry of Environment, said, "Research on the internationally endangered horned gull is still in its early stages. We will continue in-depth ecological studies to clarify the characteristics of the domestic population, migration routes to wintering grounds, and the relationship with breeding populations in China."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.