Some poisoned gulls to be `resuscitated'

Hordes of seagulls circling Dunedin's Green Island landfill are in for some tough love, courtesy of the Dunedin City Council.

The "tough" part will come in the form of poisoned bait being scattered at the landfill, ready to be scoffed by black-backed seagulls picking over scraps.

The "love" part will come later, when Delta contractors working for the council rescue and resuscitate other birds drugged unintentionally.

Delta landfill engineer Dave Hanan said the company had been granted approval to use alpha-chloralose, a narcotic that induced lethal hypothermia.

Use of the chemical had been approved by the Department of Conservation; it was needed because black-backed seagulls habitually carried off scraps from the landfill and dropped them elsewhere, he said.

"They [seagulls] eat anything.

"They're not called `rats with wings' for nothing."

The drug, in a powder form, would be mixed with margarine, spread on pieces of bread and scattered around the landfill.

While drugged black-backed seagulls would be disposed of, "non-target birds", including the smaller, protected red-billed and black-billed seagulls, would taken to a site office and "resuscitated" over several hours, he said.

These birds would be placed in a crate, tucked under a blanket and left to warm up beside an office heater, he said.

"They are normally good to go in three or four hours."

Mr Hanan said the poisoning programme aimed to educate, rather than eradicate.

"If birds see a few of their seagull buddies die, they get the idea this is not conducive to long life, and stay away."

Besides, at $350 a kg, the poison was "expensive stuff".

The drug had been trialled at the landfill and would probably be deployed up to 20 times in a year, when weather permitted, Mr Hanan said.

It was hoped the need to use the drug would decline as the black-backed gulls learned their lesson.