Capsule Great Cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis use vocal communication during the breeding season, with males being particularly earlier in cycle and showing individual variation some calls, which could be used for recognition.Aims To identify describe behaviour of Cormorants, to link calls observed behaviours explore if had potential recognition.Methods We followed 21 nesting pairs by v...

We assessed colony- and island-level genetic differentiation for the flightless cormorant (Phalacrocorax harrisi), an endangered Galápagos endemic that has one of the most limited geographical distributions of any seabird, consisting of only two adjacent islands. We screened 223 individuals from both islands and nine colonies at five microsatellite loci, recovering 23 alleles. We found highly s...

The scattering and absorption of light by water molecules and by suspended and dissolved matter (turbidity) degrade image transmission and, thus, underwater perception. We tested the effects on visual detection of prey size and distance (affecting apparent prey size) and of low-level water turbidity in hand-reared great cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis) diving for natural prey (fish) in...

There are a variety of ways to assess the environmental impacts on parasites (Lafferty D. 1997: Parasitol. Today 13: 251-255). Recent studies on endoparasites of fish have revealed that several helminths (mainly acanthocephalans, and to a lesser degree tapeworms) from the intestine of their definitive hosts bioconcentrate heavy metals above the values detected in host tissues (review in Sures B...

Conflict arises in fisheries worldwide when piscivorous birds target fish species of commercial value. This paper presents a method for estimating size selectivity functions for piscivores and uses it to compare predation selectivities of Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis L. 1758) with that of gill-net fishing on a European perch (Perca fluviatilis L. 1758) population in the Curoni...