Transactions
of the Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station

Branta Cover Language of the article: Ukrainian Cite: Sydorenko, A. I. (2022). Current status of the Great Cormorant’s (Phalacrocorax carbo L.) population in the Azov-Black sea region of Ukraine. Branta: Transactions of the Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station, 24, 23-46 Keywords: population dynamics, nesting, duration of existence, types of nesting settlements Views: 159 Branta copyright Branta license

Branta Issues > Issue №24 (2022)

Branta: Transactions of the Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station, 23-46

Current status of the Great Cormorant’s (Phalacrocorax carbo L.) population in the Azov-Black sea region of Ukraine

A. I. Sydorenko

Bogdan Khmelnytsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University

The population of the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) in European countries has dramatically increased over the past decades, from several tens of thousands of breeding pairs in the early 1980s to more than 370 thousand pairs in 2012, although at the moment there is some stabilization, and even a decrease in a number of countries.
These trends have also affected our country. In the Azov-Black Sea region of Ukraine, the most intensive growth of the nesting population of this species and its active dispersal were observed in the mid-1980s – late 1990s, but the population reached its maximum size only by the mid-2010s; according to estimates made in 2012, it was approximately 43,500 pairs, of which 18,000 (41.38%) were in the colony located on the Obytichna Spit. But, as of 2021, the number of great cormorants in the region has declined, and now barely exceeds 34,000 pairs.
All colonies of the species in the region can be divided into 5 subregional complexes (Danube-Dniester-Tylihul; Dnieper-Bug-Yahorlyk-Tendra; Dzharylhach-Karkinit; Kerch-Syvash; North-Azov) having connections both among themselves and with each other and with other nesting territories inside and outside the country. Within them, according to own and literary data, in the period from 1946 to 2021. the appearance of 72 cormorant settlements was established (not all of which were stable and existed for a long time). As of 2021, the presence of 23 reliably inhabited colonies was recorded in the region, 4 – probably inhabited and 2 – probably uninhabited.

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