A council spokesman said council contractors were evaluating the results of a trial of dispersal methods conducted in July.
The specialists would use the results to update the council’s draft Southern Black-backed Gull Management Plan, due to be provided to the Otago Regional Council by the end of the year as part of the city council’s application to close Green Island Landfill before the end of the decade.
"Implementation of the management plan will then begin in 2024 and will be subject to ongoing evaluation and review."
The spokesman did not say whether plans to spray the birds with coloured dye to monitor their dispersal from the landfill had been abandoned.
The coloured dye technique was included in a draft plan submitted to the regional council earlier this year, but last month the council said its use was being reassessed as a part of the work under way.
Creating a gull management plan was a condition of consent for the planned Smooth Hill landfill after fears were raised the risk of bird strike could increase at Dunedin Airport with the closure of Green Island Landfill and the opening of a new one only about 4.5km from the airport.
More than 8000 southern black-backed gulls (karoro) have been counted at the landfill, the draft management plan said.
The landfill, due to close before the end of the decade, was a food source for the birds and had contributed to the "unnaturally large" population of gulls in the area.
A new green bin for food and organic waste, part of the city’s new residential kerbside collection system due to be in place from July next year, would allow for the removal of food for the birds from the general waste stream.
Once the food source was removed the number of black-backed gulls was expected to decrease over the long-term.
In the short and medium term though there were fears the birds could relocate to areas closer to the airport, including investigating the Smooth Hill landfill site.
The draft plan said the estimated population of 10,000 native, but unprotected, black-backed gulls would be halved by January 2028, and no culling, such as poisoning, would be required.
The council’s consent to operate the landfill at Green Island expires next month.
Earlier this year it lodged an application to extend the life of the landfill and then close it in December 2029.
