Ross's gulls are so rare that the eggs of this Nunavut seabird fetch as much as $10,000 apiece

RESOLUTE BAY – Ross's gull, a small seabird named after British explorer James Clark Ross, is one of Nunavut's rarest birds.

"They're the rarest breeding gull in North America, and hand in hand, they're the least known," says Mark Mallory with the Canadian Wildlife Service.

The birds are also considered threatened under Canada's Species At Risk Act.

And they're here, gliding in the blue sky over a small gravel island pocked with purple saxifrage in Penny Strait, about a half hour flight north by Twin Otter from Resolute Bay.

Mallory and six other biologists are on the island for two months this summer to observe the behavior of Ross's gulls and other birds that nest in the same area, such as Arctic terns and Sabine's gulls.

Right now, no one knows what impact mining development may have on these birds. To get a better idea, Mallory's team will observe how Ross's gulls react to landing airplanes and the movement of the camp's all-terrain vehicle. That information may be used in a management plan to help prevent the number of Ross's gulls from declining.

Mallory and his crew are proposing the island be named Nasaruvaalik island. The name means "someone who wears a scarf," and refers to the distinctive black band around the Ross's gull's neck.

Jason Akearok, a biologist who works with Mallory in Iqaluit, came up with the name because he knew of no existing word for Ross's gull in Inuktitut.

But for now, they want to keep the exact location of the island a secret, because fanatical bird egg collectors have been known to go to great lengths to obtain the eggs of Ross's gulls. A single egg is known to fetch $10,000 on the black market, Mallory says.

When it was revealed a pair of Ross's gulls had nested near Churchill, Manitoba in 1980, "in no time they came and took the eggs," Mallory says.

Until 1910, when a heartland of some birds were discovered in Siberia, the Ross's gull was believed to be one of the rarest birds in the world.

Today, researchers believe there are some 20,000 pairs of Ross's gulls worldwide. It's unclear how many are in Canada, although there's an estimated 1,000 birds in northern Manitoba.

"Undoubtedly there are more than we think," Mallory says, but adds there likely aren't many more. "If there were thousands, they'd show up. It's still a rare thing to see a Ross's gull."

It's believed the birds have always existed in low numbers in Canada – there have been no spectacular declines in number, as there have been for other endangered Arctic birds, such as the Ivory gull.

Climate change may benefit the Ross's gull, at least in the short-term. They depend on open water to catch baby Arctic cod, sea worms and other critters from to feed themselves, and their young.

Mallory's camp is one of five major projects conducted by the CWS in the High Arctic this summer, at a total cost of about $500,000, with support from support from the Polar Continental Shelf Program.