Cormorant
Cormorant, or shag, refers to any of about thirty species of the family Phalacrocoracidae, a family of dark-colored water birds. The large cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is one of the most widespread of birds, occurring near rivers, lakes, cliffs, and seashores throughout Eurasia, as well as in eastern Canada and Iceland to the west, parts of Africa to the south, and Australia and New Zealand. In the Himalayas it is found in Ladakh, a region of Jammu and Kashmir, up to 3,000 meters. Friar Odoric (c. 1265–1331; a Franciscan monk who traveled from Italy to the East) reported seeing cormorant fishing from boats in China.
The young are easily trained to fish. The large cormorant and the slightly smaller Japanese cormorant (Phalacrocorax capillatus) are the two species that have been domesticated in eastern Asia for fishing, mainly in China, Vietnam, and Japan; the large shag was once used in France and England in the same way.
A speedy swimmer, the cormorant catches a fish underwater and brings it to the surface in its gular (throat) pouch. It then tosses the fish in the air and swallows it—unless a fisherman-owner has put a strap round the bird's neck. In one day it can eat up to half a kilogram of fish. The birds nest communally in great colonies with other water birds. The body of the adult bird may be 80 centimeters or even one meter long. Its remarkable agility underwater depends on the webs between the four toes, the long, stiff tail, and in adults the absence of external nostrils. The cormorant numbers over half a million in Europe alone (2001), where it is now seen as a threat to inland fisheries. In Asia, its numbers are probably much greater.
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