2. Sulphur bay is home to many kinds of gulls.
There are black - backed gulls, red- billed
gulls, and black – billed gulls. Black - billed
gulls are an endangered species. They are
found olny in new zealand.
3. Would you like your own heated pool?
The gulls of suplur bay on lake Rotorua have
found one! Suplur bay has hot spring that are
full of a smelly chemical called suplur. The
spring bubble up and make the water warm.
Gulls like living in this warm area.
4. Underneath the earth’s crust, there is hot,
melted rock called magma. In some places
,like rotorua, heat from magma reaches the
surface of the earth and causes water to
boil. This is what makes the hot pools and
geysers at rotorua.
5. Sulphur bay is a wildlife refuge. The
department of [DOC] takes care of this area.
DOC works to get rid of animals here that eat
birds’ eggs and chicks. This means that
black-billed gulls are more likely to grow to
become adults. At suplur bay, there is a
rocky area of land called sulphur point.
6. The gulls at sulphur bay like living in this
area, but it can cause some problems for
them. Sometimes you can see gulls hopping
around on sore feet. This is because the
sulphur in the water eats away the webbing
[like skin] between the gulls’ toes.
7. Every spring, the gulls make their nests at
suplur bay. Gulls don’t build their nests in
trees like other birds. They build them on
the rocks around the edge of the lake. They
use plant materials – like twigs and dry grass.
A female gull lays up to five eggs. The males
and females take turns at sitting on the nests
to keep their eggs warm.
