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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

American White Pelicans, Tommy King May 2019

American White Pelicans, Tommy King

Wildlife Damage Management Technical Series

American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, Figure 1) threaten aquaculture producers by direct predation and the spread of disease. They are also considered competition and a nuisance by some sports fishermen. Pelicans can also damage pond levees and crops, such as rice, by trampling the vegetation and depositing guano. A combination of wildlife damage management techniques is often necessary to reduce pelican damage to these resources. Aquaculture Prior to the winter of 1992, American white pelican depredations at catfish facilities in the Delta regions of Arkansas and Mississippi were limited, and birds were easily dispersed from the area. Since 1992, however, …


Estimating Waterbird Abundance On Catfish Aquaculture Ponds Using An Unmanned Aerial System, Paul C. Burr, Sathishkumar Samiappan, Lee A. Hathcock, Robert J. Moorhead, Brian S. Dorr Jan 2019

Estimating Waterbird Abundance On Catfish Aquaculture Ponds Using An Unmanned Aerial System, Paul C. Burr, Sathishkumar Samiappan, Lee A. Hathcock, Robert J. Moorhead, Brian S. Dorr

Human–Wildlife Interactions

In this study, we examined the use of an unmanned aerial system (UAS) to monitor fish-eating birds on catfish (Ictalurus spp.) aquaculture facilities in Mississippi, USA. We tested 2 automated computer algorithms to identify bird species using mosaicked imagery taken from a UAS platform. One algorithm identified birds based on color alone (color segmentation), and the other algorithm used shape recognition (template matching), and the results of each algorithm were compared directly to manual counts of the same imagery. We captured digital imagery of great egrets (Ardea alba), great blue herons (A. herodias), …