Historical changes of biodiversity in Baikal Siberia and dynamics of nest settlements of the Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo L., 1758) in the first quarter of the XXI century

¹ Department of Zoology and Ecology, Dorzhi Banzarov Buryat State University, 24а, Smolin str., Ulan-Ude, 670000, Russia
² Sciences, Laboratory of Ecology and Animal protection, Institute of General and Experimental Biology SB RAS, 6, Sakhyanovoy St., Ulan-Ude, 670047, Russia
³ Department of Science, Joint directorate of Special Protected Natural Area «Zapovednoe Podlemorye», 71, Lenin str., Ust-Barguzin village, Republic of Buryatia, 671623, Russia
⁴ Department of Natural Sciences, Pedagogical Institute, Irkutsk State University, 8, Nizhnyaya Naberezhnay str., Irkutsk, 664011, Russia

^* Corresponding author: elaev967@yandex.ru

Abstract

The article presents the history of nesting, disappearance from the fauna and the current spatial distribution of Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo L., 1758) breeding colonies in Baikal Siberia. The main research sites were the Selenga River Delta, Strait of the Maloye More and islands of the Chivyrkuy Bay, Upper Angara Bay on Baikal Lake; the Upper Angara and Barguzin hollows, Gusinoe Lake in the Pribaikalye and Transbaikalye, where this species once lived according to well-known literary sources in the XVII to the middle of the XX centuries. Direct accounting of newly nesting birds after a 50-year absence in known colonies with young birds that flew out by autumn, as well a non-breeding birds, allowed us to estimate the total number of cormorants in 2021 on Baikal Lake. It amounted to 39-40 thousand birds, which indicates the settlement of the species in the Baikal Lake ecosystem and population stabilization in accordance with the environmental ecological capacity.