Cormorant. Poisonous cormorant droppings "burn" forests on Lake Baikal

Everyone knows that Baikal birds fly to warmer climes in autumn and return in spring, but not everyone is familiar with the exact routes of feathered migrants. The other day, one of the Buryat travelers told "Number One" that he saw Baikal cormorants fishing on the exotic Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc. About how our birds have a rest in luxurious southern resorts, and will be discussed in this material.

All familiar faces

Ulan-Ude tourist Vladimir recently returned from Fukuoka and told how he unexpectedly met his fellow countrymen.

- Early in the morning I went for a swim and saw several black birds in the sea, they circled, and then sat on a fishing net and began to pull fish out of it, - the tourist recalls. - I swam closer, and was surprised: these are our cormorants!

According to Vladimir, there can be no mistake here: he himself is a fisherman and knows both the appearance of birds and their habits well. And they were the same as on Baikal. Cormorants, instead of looking for fish themselves and catching it at depth, diving from air into water, have adapted to drag already caught fish from Vietnamese nets. Less energy consumption, and the fish in the nets comes across fatter and tastier.

Migratory birds are flying

Buryat scientists confirmed that the cormorants seen by the tourist could well have a “Buryat residence permit”.

– Wintering grounds for the great cormorant that nests on Lake Baikal are located in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, – says Alexander Ananin, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Deputy Director for Science of the Reserve Podlemorie. – It is known that flocks of the great cormorant fly from Lake Baikal in autumn along the Selenga to Mongolia, and then they separate. One part of the birds turns to the east, to the Amur River, and flies towards China, descending to the Sea of ​​Japan.

Other cormorants keep their way strictly to the south, through the lakes of Inner Mongolia and the regions of China bordering the Tibetan plateau. According to Alexander Ananin, the final stop of migratory birds is the deltas of major rivers in Southeast Asia, primarily the Mekong. Phu Quoc Island is also located in this area, where, apparently, the great cormorant winters.

Deadly Transit

Apparently, the natural sharpness of the great cormorant living on Lake Baikal helped it survive in the dashing 90s, when the population of this bird was practically destroyed by Chinese poachers. The fact is that one of the versions of the almost complete disappearance of the great cormorant on Lake Baikal a quarter of a century ago is the wrong, from the point of view of safety, route through China, where this bird flew for the winter. Scientists admit that the sharp reduction of many species of Baikal birds and their inclusion in the Red Book is the result of the unprecedented destruction of birds by the Chinese.

So, a few years ago, at one of the international conferences of ornithologists, in which Russian biologists from the Barguzinsky State Natural Biosphere Reserve took part, they discussed the fate of the endangered Dubrovnik bird, a songbird of the oatmeal family.

Shocking figures were announced there: in Russia, from 1980 to 2013, the number of the species decreased by 95 percent. These birds are caught and eaten in China, where they arrive for the winter. Chinese gluttons consider them a delicacy that pays about $11 each.

Until 1980, this species numbered hundreds of millions of individuals, today it is on the verge of extinction. The problem is that Dubrovniks huddle in huge flocks and become easy prey for poachers during flights. Only in 1997, due to the protests of environmentalists, the official fishing of the migratory dubrovnik was banned, but today it continues illegally.

safe zone

So, back to our cormorants. In the 80s of the last century, this bird, which previously actively used the territory of China for transit for wintering and was practically destroyed by Chinese poachers, apparently changed its routes and today flies to a more civilized and calm Vietnam. Choosing a wintering place, including the rather large Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc, most of which is declared a nature reserve.

Moreover, fish and shellfish fishing is actively conducted on the island, which creates simply unlimited opportunities for the Baikal bird to eat other people's catches. At the same time, the island is being built up with luxury hotels for foreign tourists.

Accordingly, near tourist beaches, the shooting of birds by Vietnamese fishermen is completely excluded. If this version is correct, it becomes clear why the death of cormorants on such a paradise wintering stopped and he began to quickly restore his numbers. And if in the 80s of the last century the cormorant was practically not recorded on the "sacred sea", then, according to the scientist Alexander Ananin, "by the autumn of 2017, its number on Baikal exceeded ten thousand individuals, and this species has long been in need of any or protection."

Moreover, this growing bird is classified as a hunting bird. On Lake Baikal, local fishermen consider giant flocks of great cormorants to be one of the culprits for the sharp decline in catches of omul and other fish and regularly complain about this.

The fact is that cormorants have learned to deftly empty fishing nets. Here are just a few who decide to shoot a cormorant in Buryatia. Firstly, cartridges are now expensive, and the financial condition of fishermen has deteriorated significantly over the past few years. Secondly, the meat of this bird is considered unpleasant in taste. It is hard, dark and smells like fish. Hunters say that cormorant can be eaten only after a long soaking and heat treatment, but it is unrealistic to completely remove the unpleasant fishy smell.

As a matter of fact, the parodic, cunning, but successful image of the cormorant today looks much more modern than the proud eagles depicted on many coats of arms, long exterminated by poachers.

Dmitry Rodionov, "Number One".

Cormorant stone is an island that is the unofficial southern border of the environs of Peschanaya Bay. It received the status of a monument on May 19, 1981. Established for aesthetic purposes, it has recently acquired a significant zoological value, since, in addition to a large colony of herring gulls, returning pairs of great cormorant began to nest on it again. And there is hope that the Cormorant Stone will be able to regain its significance as the only place of concentration of this bird in Southern Baikal, which is listed in the Red Book of the Irkutsk Region.

Where to look for Cormorant stone?

Cormorant stone is actually the top of an underwater rock, reaching a height of 15 meters. It is separated from the coast by a 160-meter strait of 5-meter depth.

The rock can be seen 3 km from Peschanaya Bay and about 2.4 km from Cape Maly Kolokolny, on the territory of the Pribaikalsky National Park.

The explanation of the name of the island is extremely unpretentious. Once it was a favorite habitat on the lake of the great cormorant.

The only island in the southern part of Baikal

Cormorant stone is considered one of the most attractive places of the lake, and therefore its image can often be seen in the professional photo gallery of Baikal.

The coast here consists of coarse-grained granite, which, as a result of weathering, appears as bizarre jagged and columnar or tower-shaped forms of its slope.

In the eastern part, the island resembles a tower made of granite with a clearly defined peak of 17 meters. At the same time, the island itself has a semi-oval shape in plan - 40 by 35 meters.

The rock is practically devoid of vegetation. Its cover is very modest, unpresentable, not lying in a continuous carpet, but located in separate groups. In general, we can only talk about single specimens of flora, among which are woody ones - Siberian elderberry, mountain ash, drooping birch, and herbaceous ones - Siberian couch grass, sheep sedge, common wormwood, prickly mountain grate ...

Cormorant stone is a convenient home for birds. It is considered a refuge for breeding offspring of the herring (Mongolian) gull, great cormorant, gray heron, long-nosed merganser, white wagtail and white-rumped swift. It is no coincidence that we used the word "consider". The fact is that the herring gull and the great cormorant actually disappeared from the island. Only the name reminded of the bird.

Fortunately, in the 90s of the last century, the seagull returned, and around 2012-2014 the cormorant was again seen.

The unenviable fate of the great cormorant on Baikal

The great cormorant was so familiar to Baikal in the last century that its settlements here seemed to last forever. Perhaps that is why it was not thoroughly studied, as a given, postponing “for later”. And then, in the middle of the 20th century, it simply disappeared. And since the species remained practically unexplored, the reasons for its “leaving” from the lake did not find an unambiguous objective explanation. It remains only to speculate.

Firstly, all birds undergo natural changes in habitat boundaries, so the great cormorant could also reduce its nesting range. But such a sharp loss, logically, can be associated with a rapid deterioration in living conditions.

Island-stone: how the most "bird" island of Baikal looks like

In the 1950s, a chain that was detrimental to birds was formed: the formation of a new coastline and clouding of the water in shallow waters ousted the yellowfly goby, the main fattening feed for the omul, from this place; omul began to grow more slowly and was forced to eat less nutritious food; the cormorant is a highly specialized ichthyophage, and, unlike omnivorous gulls, it failed to adapt to such a change in diet, which was largely associated with a decrease in the stock of omul and a drop in its nutritional value. Secondly, the extremely negative role of man and the low level of ecological culture.

A small digression. All tourists who have seen the cormorant hunt for omul claim that this is an extremely spectacular and emotional event: “In autumn, the birds concentrate at the mouth of each spawning river that flows into Baikal, and eat off the omul before flying off for the winter. Omul enters the river in huge herds along the shallow water of its mouth and it is at this time that it becomes an easily accessible prey for cormorants. Huge flocks of fish-eating birds take tribute from each shoal of omul. As a rule, cormorants are located near the mouth, at the right moment they take off and attack the fish, diving with folded wings. The emerging birds swallow the fish, dive again and swallow again, and then fly to the shore and settle down for several hours in a dry place, drying their wet wings.

But such a bewitching picture of the locals and then, in the middle of the twentieth century, and now causes only indignation. It should not be surprising that coastal fishermen (as well as individual representatives of the authorities) declared this bird the main culprit for the reduction in the omul herd.

And the enemy must be fought. And the methods were not chosen. In the last century, the cormorant was fought even with the help of fuels and lubricants. Nests with eggs or chicks were simply doused with diesel fuel and burned. And no one wanted to hear that the bird eats 400-600 grams of fish per day, and only catches it en masse in autumn.

The northern bird markets were less accessible to the destructive actions of people, and the southern ones, including the Cormorant Stone, were not so lucky.

Nevertheless, the cormorant returned to the Baklany stone and successfully breeds. An almost lost population is being restored. It would seem that one can only rejoice. But this fact is welcomed by ornithologists and tourists, and among fishermen and government officials, the cormorant is the most harmful bird, which in the Republic of Buryatia has already been excluded from the regional Red Book and recognized as a "hunting resource" ...

The background of the question is this. The great cormorant always lived on Lake Baikal in huge numbers until the middle of the 20th century, but at the beginning of its second half it rapidly disappeared. It turned out that the species disappeared unexplored, so the reasons for its disappearance remained unknown. Information about the cormorant on Baikal was collected and summarized by the well-known Baikal scientist O. Gusev and published in 1982 in the journal “Hunting and Hunting Economy”. Thanks to Gusev, information about the former distribution, abundance and features of the biology of these birds became publicly available, and most importantly, the phenomenon of the disappearance of the cormorant received a negative assessment. The species was included in the Red Books of the Irkutsk region and the Republic of Buryatia.

Nevertheless, cormorants were observed on Baikal almost every year, flights of individual birds were quite common. At the end of the 20th century, cormorants began to be observed more often on Baikal, and at the beginning of the 21st century, their first pairs began to nest. The first nests and then colonies of cormorants appeared on the islands in the Chivyrkuisky Bay, on the territory of the Trans-Baikal National Park. Nesting places were taken under special protection; the breeding of birds that returned to Baikal was successful. So successful that in ten years the great cormorant has become a common and even numerous species on Baikal. Its nesting colonies appeared on the islands in the Small Sea and in other places, including in the southern half of the lake, on the island of Baklany Kamen near Peschanka Bay. The number of the species is growing, the process of restoration of the population that disappeared in the recent past continues. The species even expanded its former range - its nesting colonies appeared on the reservoir of the Bratsk hydroelectric power station.

On Baikal, the great cormorant can now be found everywhere, and in early summer and autumn there are huge flocks of it. Especially in autumn, when birds concentrate at the mouth of each spawning river flowing into Baikal and feed on omul before leaving for the winter. Omul enters the river in huge herds along the shallow water of its mouth and it is at this time that it becomes an easily accessible prey for cormorants. Huge flocks of fish-eating birds take tribute from each shoal of omul. As a rule, cormorants are located near the mouth, take off at the right moment and attack the fish, diving with folded wings. The emerging birds swallow the fish, dive again and swallow again, and then fly to the shore and settle down for several hours in a dry place, drying their wet wings. After cormorant hunting, seagulls collect damaged omul from the surface of the water and from the bottom. The fattening of cormorants is a very spectacular and emotional event. Observers - as a rule, local residents (all locals on Baikal are fishermen) see the actions of the main, in their opinion, the culprit of the decrease in Baikal's fish stocks. It is useless to prove that the right of a cormorant to eat fish is older than our right to assess its actions, and even more so to explain that the level of metabolism of cormorants is low and one bird eats only 400-600 g of food per day. After all, birds are clouds, every year there are more and more of them, and fewer and fewer fish. The public opinion of the inhabitants of the Baikal shores unanimously recognized the cormorant as a harmful bird, the consequences of this have already manifested themselves. Cormorants are already being shot along the entire coast without picking up their carcasses, and in the Republic of Buryatia the species is excluded from the regional Red Book and has become a “hunting resource”. Proposals to "regulate" the number of great cormorant Zabaikalsky National Park receives regularly. The logic of officials is simple: there are now tens of thousands of cormorant pairs, each pair needs 1 kg per day, this is tens of tons of fish every day, which means that during the time from arrival to departure, birds eat omul much more than fishermen in Baikal catch legally.

On Baikal, the great cormorant can now be found everywhere

The situation is very typical - if there is a problem, do not look for its cause, but appoint the culprit. Cormorant is perfect for this role. Therefore, in order to correctly assess the phenomenon of the return of the cormorant, it is necessary to find out the reasons for its disappearance and absence from Baikal for a long time, about half a century.

A gradual reduction in the abundance of cormorant continued throughout the period of development of the lake by industrial fishing. The fishermen unanimously regarded the bird as their competitor and "took action". O. Gusev noted that by the middle of the 20th century the cormorant no longer nested in the southern half of the island. It can be added that all the former places of nesting colonies of the species were located here on coastal rocks, that is, they were accessible to humans. The first species of colonial fish-eating birds destroyed by man in Baikal was the curly pelican. The destruction of the pelican and cormorant in southern Baikal was of a utilitarian nature - the collection of their eggs was practiced. But in the almost uninhabited northern half of the lake, powerful nesting colonies of cormorants and a high abundance of the species survived until the beginning of the second half of the 20th century. A significant number of colonies were located on hard-to-reach rocky islands, and although the collection of eggs, as well as carcasses of chicks for fur farms, was practiced, the cormorant managed to maintain a high level of abundance. Seagulls have also survived, the colonies of which also served as a place for preparing eggs.

The level of the so-called ecological culture of the population in the past was very different from that of today. It was considered normal to use all available resources for one's own purposes, and resource-saving traditions were born by society only when it was convinced that the resource was finite. To reduce the number of "harmful species", which included the cormorant, any action was considered acceptable. The old-timers of Olkhon Island remember that schoolchildren were sent to the cormorant colonies on the ledges of the coastal cliffs, for example, in the vicinity of the village of Khalgay, to beat the cormorants in the nests and their chicks from above with stones. The bird colonies on the islands closest to Olkhon were dealt with with the help of fuel and lubricants. Nests with eggs and chicks were doused with diesel fuel and burned. Yes, it was exactly like that. Professor V. Skalon, during a multi-day trip to Lake Baikal in the middle of the last century on the Komsomolets steamship, drew attention to teenagers who had fun shooting from small-caliber rifles at the heads of seals. The scientist turned to a police officer, who was among the passengers of the ship, with a demand to take measures to restore order. The police officer could not understand for a long time what caused the citizen's indignation - after all, young men do not shoot at people!

Under such conditions, the cormorant in the southern half of Baikal was doomed to extermination, which happened, but in the northern half it was saved by the remoteness of the colonies from rare settlements and their relative inaccessibility. Outboard boat motors appeared in the mass among the population by the end of the 1960s, when the cormorant was no longer here. The species, which remained numerous, became extremely rare in a few years, and then disappeared completely.

What caused the cormorant to disappear? Of course, natural changes in the range boundaries occur constantly in all species; the nesting range could also be reduced in the cormorant. But the rapid disappearance of a large population could only be caused by the action of a factor that dramatically changed the conditions of its habitat for the worse. This is exactly what happened with the great cormorant, there was also a factor that changed the conditions of its habitat. The filling of the reservoir of the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station began in 1956 and caused a rise in the water level in Baikal. It is likely that 1957 was a turning point in the fate of the Baikal population of the great cormorant. It was in this year that the species became very rare from ordinary, and the final extinction of the population dragged on for several years. According to the data collected by O. Gusev, the last two nests on Olkhon Island, on Cape Kobylya Golova, were observed in 1962; In 1959 there were no cormorants here. In 1967, when the cormorant had not been on Baikal for several years, a pair of birds and their nest with one egg were found here. This was the last case of nesting of the species on Lake Baikal in the 20th century.

The rise in the water level in Lake Baikal turned out to be a decisive factor in the fate of the local cormorant population. The formation of a new shoreline of the lake began, the water in the area of ​​coastal shallow waters, the spawning grounds for all Baikal gobies, became muddy. As a result of this, the eggs of gobies perished and the abundance of all their species decreased, including to critical values. Most of the Baikal gobies simply cannot live in troubled waters and therefore were forced to leave the shallow coastal waters. One of the most massive species in the past, the yellowfly goby, was even included in the Red Book of the country. It is well known that after the construction of the hydroelectric power station, the Baikal omul began to grow more slowly and reach sexual maturity later. These are the consequences of the loss of their main fattening feed in the past - underyearlings of gobies. Omul switched to eating invertebrates, that is, to less nutritious food. Seagulls, colonial water birds, whose eggs were also collected in large volumes, survived due to their omnivorous nature, and the great cormorant, a highly specialized ichthyophage, disappeared.

The first cormorant nests appeared on the Chivyvyrkui Bay

Only due to the fact that part of the coast of Baikal, including its islands, is represented by sheer cliffs and the water remained relatively clean when its level rose near the rocks, the species diversity of gobies was preserved, and the process of the disappearance of cormorants dragged on for a decade.

It took about 50 years for Baikal to form a new coastline and adapt to the new water level. The return of the cormorant is evidence of the restoration of the great lake's ecosystem. The abundance of all kinds of gobies also increased, and the yellowfly goby, which had almost disappeared, became common again. The number of Baikal seals has also increased, and its shore haulouts have appeared even in the southern part of the lake. But the situation with the stocks of commercial fish species is the opposite - omul and grayling are less and less. But this is the result of human activity. Fish in Baikal are caught by people, seals, and cormorants. Who is more - it's easy to guess. It is pointless to blame the seal, it is known that it swims slower than the omul. The cormorant is more capable, but deeper than six meters, it does not dive, and with increasing depth of immersion, it quickly loses speed. The main competitors of Baikal fishermen successfully catch omul only in autumn, from spawning schools of fish in the mouths of rivers. But during the entire period of open water, seals and cormorants successfully catch fish caught in fishing nets. This is what they have earned the staunch antipathy of the owners of the networks.

The role of commercial fish species in the diet of the cormorant was clearly evidenced in the summer of 2014. The Small Sea Strait, between Olkhon Island and the western mainland coast, is a feeding place for omul. Here, on the islands of the Small Sea, there are nesting colonies of cormorants. In the summer of 2014, the fishermen did not find the omul in the Small Sea - he left. Why this happened is a separate question, to which there is no answer yet, but the reasons for the reduction in the abundance of grayling are obvious - this coastal settled fish was simply caught. Cormorants, in the absence of omul and the extremely low abundance of grayling, successfully raised their offspring and did not leave the Small Sea until the very autumn. They ate gobies in shallow coastal waters, that is, those fish that fishermen are not interested in as prey.

For a correct assessment of the phenomenon of the return of the cormorant to Baikal, it is necessary to know the role of the species in the life of the lake's ecosystem. The cormorant disappeared unexplored, but the fact that the biocenotic significance of the species in Baikal is similar to that of other fish-eating colonial birds is indisputable. Bird colonies and the water area adjacent to them are always a single ecosystem. Birds, unlike a person who takes fish from water bodies irretrievably, return it in the form of soluble organic matter. This contributes to the outbreak of the abundance of zoo - phytoplankton, that is, it contributes to an increase in the productivity of the ecosystem. Baikal is known for its cleanliness and, as a result, low fish productivity. The fact that the simplification of the ecosystem makes it fragile and vulnerable, and the complication - more stable, is an elementary truth of ecology. It is necessary to give an assessment of the phenomenon of the return of the great cormorant to Baikal, but only taking into account the foregoing.

The return of the cormorant should only be assessed positively. This is the restoration of the natural structure of the lake ecosystem, which changed in the middle of the 20th century towards simplification under the influence of an anthropogenic factor. The continued growth in the number and breeding range of the cormorant should also be assessed positively. The great cormorant, a highly specialized ichthyophage, together with the Baikal seal occupies the top step of the food pyramid of the lake's ecosystem. The state of its population is an indicator of the state of the Baikal ecosystem as a whole. The process of the return of the great cormorant to Baikal and the increase in the abundance of the species are now natural phenomena. This is the most clear evidence that Baikal is alive and its ecosystem not only functions normally, but is even capable of self-healing. According to the Law on the Protection of Lake Baikal, any actions that disrupt the course of natural processes and phenomena on Baikal may be limited. Common sense and the current legislation regarding the cormorant on Baikal are the same. Any actions directed against the cormorant can be considered illegal and measures should be taken to stop them. The exclusion of the species from the Red Book of the Republic of Buryatia is a fait accompli, but calls to “regulate” its numbers are groundless.

Explanatory work should play a special role. The population of the Baikal and Transbaikal regions must constantly receive reliable information about the role played by the great cormorant in the life of Lake Baikal and change their negative attitude towards the species to a positive one.

A well-known Irkutsk ecologist and ornithologist, Candidate of Biological Sciences Vitaly Ryabtsev spoke about the appearance of cormorants on Goly Island in the Chivyrkuisky Bay. The information that appeared in the media that birds are destroying green spaces on Lake Baikal, the scientist called "news from a madhouse."

We are talking about a subject where massive logging is taking place - for the sake of selling at bargain prices to China, about the Baikal region, where colonies of cormorants on the islets have existed since time immemorial - he wrote in the Fight for Baikal group on Facebook. - Therefore, the island referred to in the article is called Naked. The grove must have grown there during the forty-year absence of the cormorant. Found a reason to declare a disaster! Behind the real catastrophe among the “merchants” are the current leaders of the “forest industry”.

Recall that earlier in the forest protection center of Buryatia, birds were declared no less than new pests of forests. It all started with the fact that last summer one of the employees of the institution visited Chivyrkuisky Bay and saw dead trees there. When asked if the fire destroyed them, he was told: "No, these are cormorants." Defenders of the forest are sure: the centuries-old pines on the shore of the sacred lake "burn" the poisonous droppings of birds.

Now this island is really bare. The same picture is observed on the shore of Lake Barmashevoe. And there are thousands of these cormorants. Flock after flock fly. In each - at least 50 individuals. All rocky outcrops are literally plastered with them. It can be assumed that the dead forest is much larger than what was seen. Soon forest pathologists will have to ascertain the facts of the death of trees not only because of fires, insects and diseases. In this case, the cormorant is guilty, - says the message published on the website of the institution.

They ask the question, it is not necessary to think in advance about the regulation of the number of cormorants. They also note that local residents complain about birds - they say that they eat hundreds of tons of fish.

I remember the day when I first noticed these graceful birds. I was walking along the old, long-burnt wooden bridge from the Istanbul port across the Golden Horn Bay, but lingered in its upper part to look at the fishermen standing there, it was very curious what they were catching. That's where I admired the black birds, with short wings for such heavy creatures, running for a long time on the water before breaking away from it. They fascinated me, and I stood there, watching how they dive and appear on the surface in a few minutes to deftly throw up the caught fish, and then swallow it.

Then I learned that these are cormorants, widespread throughout the world. I met them in many countries, on different continents. On the Far East coast of our country, I admired them to the fullest. And here is a new meeting with these birds. The meeting is unexpected. I could not imagine that cormorants live on Baikal. Therefore, when I saw large birds flying over the lake, I thought they were geese, but they turned out to be cormorants.

Two hundred years ago, they wrote that cormorants met on Lake Baikal "in such innumerable flocks as hardly anywhere else on the mainland of the Old World", while the flocks "covered the Sun", and the cormorants nested "in such masses that the droppings lay in a thick layer on the rocks and his scent carried far away. There were so many of them that in the thirties of the 20th century a proposal was discussed to organize their fishing in order to "give the cities additional hundreds of tons of fatty poultry meat."

Their number is evidenced by the fact that the name Baklany bore four islands, four capes, three bays, a river and a railway siding, and only about 30 objects. True, over time, almost all Baklany Islands were renamed. And suddenly the cormorant disappeared and was considered extinct in the area for 40 years. But, here he again settled on Baikal. This story intrigued me and I wanted to understand it.

But first you need to remember what a cormorant is. This is a bird of the pelican order, living almost all over the world. There are about 30 species of birds in the family, six species nest in Russia. Baikal belong to the most common species on earth "big". Cormorants have an elongated, like a spindle, body with a long neck and webbed feet. There is a throat bag on the neck, to feed the chicks, the parents put their heads in their mouths, bend the neck and push the fish into the chick's beak. Cormorants differ in a thin long beak with a sharp hook at the end, combining the properties of tweezers and a harpoon. Their plumage is painted black with a metallic sheen.

Cormorants nest in colonies together with other birds; nests are built from grass and branches. Chicks appear helpless and naked, overgrown with fluff, and after 2 months they fledge and begin to fly.

The great cormorant is a large bird, its weight reaches 4 kg. With a wingspan of 160 cm and a body length of up to 1 meter, it makes an impressive impression.

Cormorants are not only migratory, but also nomadic birds, during the day they can fly over considerable distances. By mid-September, birds nesting on Lake Baikal gather in autumn flocks, leaving the lake area by the end of the month.

They are excellent divers, in this the Baikal cormorant holds the record. Diving to a depth of 50 meters, it remains under water for up to 10 minutes, managing during this time to catch up with the fish and kill it with its curved sharp hook on its beak, like a harpoon.
A transparent nictitating membrane on its eyes, which acts as underwater glasses, helps the bird navigate underwater.

The plumage of cormorants gets wet and after emerging, the bird is forced to dry its wings for a long time, sitting in the pose of a "heraldic" eagle.

It is almost impossible for cormorants to take off from the ground, they do it freely from rocks and trees, but they rise from the water with difficulty. In flight, their flock lines up, each bird in the air looks like a perfect cross.

What do cormorants eat? Mostly fish, but also frogs and crayfish. On average, they consume up to 300 g of fish per day.

Let's return to the question - when and why did the Baikal cormorants disappear? Back in 1933, according to ornithologists, the number of these birds reached 10,000 individuals.

And then he began to disappear rapidly. What was the reason? The first push was made during the war years, when a massive collection of eggs and carcasses of chicks began, which were canned and sent to the front. But, the main reason was that by the mid-50s, many motor boats appeared on the lake, on which it was not difficult to get to the main cormorant nesting sites.

It became a kind of "sport" to beat cormorants with stones, shoot them with small-caliber rifles, and collect eggs. In addition, chick carcasses were harvested for fur farms to feed fur-bearing animals. Possible reasons include a decrease in fish stocks, and a rise in the level of Lake Baikal after the construction of the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station, followed by a sharp decrease in the number of the main food for cormorants - gobies, and in addition, a natural change in the range was possible.

It is possible that this happened due to the situation in the wintering areas of waterfowl. At the same time, the number of other migratory birds, such as teal, goose, and swan, wintering near the cormorant off the coast of China, sharply decreased in Siberia. At that time there was a massive slaughter of wintering birds. They even used explosives, for which they hung dynamite charges on low piles along the high steep coast, under which the birds gathered, they were blown up, thousands of birds were killed with collapsed blocks, which were then collected and used for food.

The last nests of cormorants were discovered in 1962, after which a forty-year period of the cormorant-free life of Baikal began.

But in 2006, two inhabited nests of cormorants were discovered on the Small Sea, after which the restoration of the number of these birds began, at the same rate as they disappeared in the middle of the last century. The account at first went to tens, then hundreds and, finally, thousands of individuals. In 2012, 600-700 pairs nested on the islands of the Small Sea, bringing the autumn population to 3,000 individuals before migrating to wintering.