Larus relictus

Relict Gull is a medium-sized waterfowl with no subspecies.

In 1931, zoologist Ejnar Lonnberg, then director of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, wrote about a number of bird specimens collected in Ejin Banner, China, and referred to the surviving gull only as an Oriental geographic population of black-headed gull (Gull in the middle of the sea), and wrote the same year to explain the problem. They used the scientific name Larus relictus, meaning "lost gull", which has since been recognized by the scientific community.

In the following decades, international ornithology has been divided on the origin of the lost gull, with the main opinion being that it is a coloriform of another brown-headed gull (Larus brunnicephalus), which breeds in the Asian interior, or a cross between a fishing gull (Larus ichthyaetus) and a brown-headed gull. Finally, in 1971, Soviet ornithologist Auezov discovered a small independent breeding colony of lost gulls at Alakol Lake in present-day Kazakhstan. Later, he recorded the reproductive isolation between the larns and the brown-headed larns, and finally the larns faced the world as independent species.

Non-breeding individuals form their own colonies and live in lakes other than the breeding grounds. Although it is known locally as "fishing ranzi", in fact, aquatic insects and aquatic invertebrates are its main food. It nests on sand islands, often mixed with the nests of terns, noisy gulls, and giant gulls. It is made of dry water grass.

Gull calls: Laughter ka-kak, ka-ka kee-a.

The adaptability of the lost gull is very narrow, especially the selection of breeding sites is almost harsh, it only gives birth to young on the central island of the arid desert lake, and does not breed elsewhere. Every March, the lost gulls migrate north, with a new and colorful plumage, ready for the long journey to the nest to attract a mate. Some get to know each other and pair up during the migration, while the vast majority get married only after they arrive at the breeding ground.

Not a single nest of lost gull has ever been found on Earth but on an island in a lake. The central part of the island in the middle of the lake, the bare and stony ground is the preferred nesting site. The nests of the early migrating gulls are more delicate, digging 2-3 cm deep shallow pits on the ground with their mouths and feet, and then placing caragana, white thorn and other shrubs, lined with grasses, velvets and feathers, and adding a circle of small stones outside the nest to fix it. The nests built by latecomers tend to be rather simple, sometimes just a shallow hole filled with shrubs, leaves and weeds. During late incubation and brooding, the lards will guard the nest together. If someone or a natural enemy approaches the nest area, thousands of parent birds almost pour out, flying wildly over the nest area, screaming loudly, some diving down recklessly, some excreting feces from the top to deal with the intruder.

The breeding period of the lards is from May to the beginning of 67, and they nest in groups, and some individuals start nesting in early May. They usually nest in desert and semi-desert lakes or on the island in the middle of the lake of Haizi, and build up a group of nests, the nests are connected to the nests, and the nearest distance between the nests is sometimes only 7 cm. The outer diameter of the nests is 19-27 cm, the inner diameter is 11-14 cm, and the depth is 2-6 cm. It's made mostly of dead grass, and it's lined with feathers. Each clutch lays 2-3 eggs, but there are also 1 or 4 eggs, incubation period 24-26 days. The egg is white in color with brown or black spots. The newly hatched chick weighs about 50 grams, and is covered with light gray feathers, black beak and feet, and webbed between the toes. The next day after the shell can walk, pecking in the mouth of the parent bird, but very afraid of cold, often snuggled under the wings of the parent bird, in October to move south.

Risk factors: overhunting, such as picking up bird eggs; Indirect hazards to breeding gulls caused by raptor activity, in addition to medium and small carnivores around lakes and on sand dunes may be more dangerous to gulls. During the brooding period, the phenomenon of chick death often occurs, and the chicks that stray from the nest are pecked to death by the males of other nests. In addition, bad weather, such as storms and hail, may also be a cause of death for some chicks.

Listed in Appendix I, Appendix II and Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) 2019 edition.

Listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN) 2017 ver 3.1 - Vulnerable (VU).

Listed in China's "National Key Protected Wildlife List" (February 5, 2021).

Listed in the Chinese Red Book of Endangered animals grade: vulnerable, effective date: 1996

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Country of origin: China (Mainland and Hong Kong), Kazakhstan, Korea, Mongolia, Russian Federation
Travelers: Bulgaria, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam.
Gulls like to live in the open plain and desert and semi-desert areas of salt water or fresh water lakes, in the Tao Li Miao - Alashan Bay Haizi, the lake has mud sandbanks and immersed - flooded inchgrass beach, the lake is planted with willow, caragana, sand-hardening forest belt. Gulls flock here every spring, standing with their heads and necks stretched straight. Whenever the fine weather at dusk, many of the gull out foraging have returned, in the island and the nearby water to play, fun, a very noisy spectacular scene.

Adult bird summer feather: the whole head is dark brown to black, the upper edge reaches the back neck, the lower edge reaches the lower throat and the front neck, the dark brown gradually transitions from front to back into pure black, and the white neck is connected. The upper, lower and posterior edges of the eyes have significant white spots, and the neck is white; Back light gray; Waist, tail cover and tail feathers pure white. The shoulder and wings are light gray, the same color as the back; The outer primary feathers are white, with black secondary end spots. The secondary end spots gradually expand from the outer to the inner feathers, and then shrink to a small black spot by the 6th primary feathers. The first primary feathers are black, the second and third primary feathers are black at the front, and the first and second primary feathers have a large white spot behind the black secondary end spot; The medial primary and secondary feathers are pale gray with white tips. Body