Why do people hate cormorants?
Ann Arbor, MI — A third of people described cormorants as “flying rats” and said they would shoot any cormorant that came close, if it were legal. These were some of the responses by 1200 residents of the Lake Champlain region when asked their opinions about double-crested cormorants, fish-eating waterbirds that have become increasingly common on the lake in the last 30 years.
On Lake Champlain, cormorant eggs are treated to prevent hatching, and adult cormorants are being killed by government biologists, in order to reduce numbers of these birds. Not surprisingly, attitudes toward such population control vary among members of the public.
Researchers at the University of Vermont and Plattsburgh State University mailed questionnaires to people who recreate on Lake Champlain, live on the lakeshore, or belong to local conservation organizations. Questions were designed to determine the strength of knowledge and attitudes toward cormorants and their management.
Results of the study showed that anglers were most likely to dislike cormorants, believing strongly that sport fish populations are being depleted by these birds. Yet, anglers scored lowest on the scale of knowledge about cormorants, despite rating themselves higher than other groups on their knowledge of wildlife. Dr. Walter Kuentzel, a social scientist at the University of Vermont, explains that, "it is possible that anglers in our sample were fitting attitudes about cormorants to their beliefs…when attitudes are negative, then knowledge may be exaggerated to vilify the cormorants…."
One conclusion of the study was that more public education about cormorants may actually create more polarization about what is more of a policy debate than a scientific argument about control of cormorant numbers.
Original Publication Information
Results of this study, "Attitude Strength and Social Acceptability of Cormorant Control Programs on Lake Champlain," are reported by Walter Kuentzel, David Capen, Zoe Richards, and Bryan Higgins in the special issue on Lake Champlain, of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, published by Elsevier, 2012.
Contacts
For more information about the study, contact Dr. Walter R. Kuentzel, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, 05405; (802) 656-0652.
For information about the Journal of Great Lakes Research, contact Marlene Evans, Editor, National Water Research Institute, Environment Canada, 11 Innovation Boulevard, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 3H5, Canada; jglr@ec.gc.ca; (306) 975-5310.
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