Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Double-Crested Cormorant Satellite Telemetry: Preliminary Insight, Scott J. Werner, D. Tommy King, David E. Wooten

Wildlife Damage Management Conference Proceedings

Migratory paths of North American waterbirds have traditionally been evaluated by relocating birds banded as nestlings. Although over 8,000 banded Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) have been recovered in North America since 1923, the movements of wintering and breeding cormorants remain poorly understood. We initiated a satellite telemetry study to determine the annual and regional distributions of 25 cormorants (in each of two study years) captured near primary aquaculture areas in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Preliminary data suggest that cormorants generally remained near aquaculture facilities where they were captured, marked, and released. Two cormorants, however, emigrated from primary aquaculture areas …