Double-Crested Cormorant: Plight of a Feathered Pariah

by Linda R. Wires

The tragic history of the cormorant’s relations with humans and the implications for today’s wildlife management policy

The double-crested cormorant, found only in North America, is an iridescent black waterbird superbly adapted to catch fish. It belongs to a family of birds vilified since biblical times and persecuted around the world. Thus it was perhaps to be expected that the first European settlers in North America quickly deemed the double-crested cormorant a competitor for fishing stock and undertook a relentless drive to destroy the birds. This enormously important book explores the roots of human-cormorant conflicts, dispels myths about the birds, and offers the first comprehensive assessment of the policies that have been developed to manage the double-crested cormorant in the twenty-first century.
 
Conservation biologist Linda Wires provides a unique synthesis of the cultural, historical, scientific, and political elements of the cormorant’s story. She discusses the amazing late-twentieth-century population recovery, aided by protection policies and environment conservation, but also the subsequent U.S. federal policies under which hundreds of thousands of the birds have been killed. In a critique of the science, management, and ethics underlying the double-crested cormorant’s treatment today, Wires exposes “management” as a euphemism for persecution and shows that the current strategies of aggressive predator control are outdated and unsupported by science.

Genres: Birds, Science

367 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Ellen Church · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to read, because you want to throw the book across the room with all constantly recurring descriptions of the violence done against this bird by Man. The book opens with a history of the bird and the descriptions of the wanton slaughter of the bird in the past. But then we turn to a new era, and it just continues and continues. Although very dry, data driven, and boring in the middle, a good several concluding chapters sum up the state of play. This is not a book for the faint of heart or a casual reader, but for someone with an interest in wildlife management, a lawyer, or a resident of a community of anglers, this is an excellent reference to have on the shelf.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to stop reading this about 3/4 of the way through. I just couldn't take the endless human stupidity manifesting as cyclical attempts to eradicate this bird species.

That said, the book is well written. I have to say, it reads as if it were a dissertation that was rewritten for the "popular press." That is to say, there are points at which the academic overrides the popular. Not so often as to make it unreadable but noticeable nonetheless.

In the end, I suppose the good thing is that despite all of the human efforts to eradicate the cormorant, the cormorant remains.

[Andrew Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

about continued persecution of a ‘bad’ bird- at same time as neighbouring municipality where I bird watch makes a ‘fun’ day of shooting crows and magpies- other bad birds. Really interesting history of early conservation efforts including Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Aldo Leopold and Audubon. Had to skip lots of scientific reports but sections on Manitoba.

[Bob Stocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

In conjunction with a friend I've been working on expanding a ten-minute talk that I gave on Double-crested Cormorants (see http://stockerphotos.com/blog/PDFs/DC...) into something a bit longer and deeper. To get more background, I've now read three books on the subject: The Double-Crested Cormorant: Symbol of Ecological Conflict by Dennis Wild, The Devil's Cormorant: A Natural History by Richard J. King, and this book, The Double-Crested Cormorant: Plight of a Feathered Pariah by Linda R. Wires. There's a lot of overlap among the three books, but the authors' perspectives are different. Wild writes outdoor articles for magazines, King lecturers on literature of the sea at Williams College, and Wires works as a conversation biologist specializing in waterbirds.

All three books discuss cormorant behavior and biology and describe the wanton culling of cormorants based on the largely erroneous assumption that they are evil birds responsible for declines in fisheries. Each book is excellent in its own way, but for someone with my background, taste, and requirements the book by Wires is best. Wires documents the history of their interaction between humans and presents both scientific and ethical arguments for revising our approach to managing them. Her development is logical and coherent and her critique of current practices is spot on.

[T.G. Franklin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this from the Goodreads First Reads giveaway. Then I quickly gave it to my boss's father-in-law who is an avid bird watcher. (Which is why I entered the giveaway.)

However, my boss & I did skim the book, and it was packed with info, and even had us going to the internet for the bird's call.

If and when I hear back from Mr. C, I'll update the review.

[Polly Krize · Rating 4 out of 5]

I RECEIVED THIS BOOK AS AN ADVANCE COPY FROM GOODREADS

A very in-depth book about this much-maligned bird! Written by a conservation biologist, this book offers a comprehensive study of this cormorant.