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Description: |
xviii, 349 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm |
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Bibliography Note: |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-335) and index. |
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Contents Note: |
Contents: Part I. What are cormorants? Aristotle's raven : an introduction to cormorants -- The double-crested cormorant -- Part II. The populations and the perceptions, then and now. European colonization and the making of a pariah -- From Audubon to conservation : the first wave of recovery -- Reversal of fortunes : another decline and the second recovery -- Part III. The economic and political landscape of the cormorant, 1965 to the present. Fish ponds and reservoirs : the context for conflict on the wintering grounds -- Animal damage control and the first standing depredation order for cormorants -- Conflicts on the breeding grounds -- The second standing depredation order for cormorants -- A half million and counting : implementation of management policies in the United States -- Looking north to Canada : limitations to management beyond the 49th parallel -- Part IV. The science, management, and ethics of today : review and critique. Untangling the mysteries between predator and prey -- Adaptive management : a process gone awry -- Back to the wintering grounds : liberties with science and policy -- Engineer or destroyer : the case of the catastrophic ecosystem flip -- Opening Pandora's box : some ethical implications of cormorant management -- Afterword : what future for cormorants? |
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Summary, Etc. Note: |
Summary: 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. |
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Elect. Loc./Access: |
Contributor biographical information http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy1410/2013957500-b.html |