Home	About the RRC	RRC Expertise	Staff	Raptor Biology M.S. Program
	Projects	Events	Resources	Abstracts	Dept. of Biology

Annual Movements of American White Pelicans

We are currently analyzing the location database generated by the 1996-98 study to address other information needs.

After the Pyramid Lake nesting period, but before migration, some birds moved several hundred kilometers. For example, one individual left the capture area in early July, flew to northern California, then to southern Oregon, southern Idaho, and arrived at the Great Salt Lake in Utah by mid-August. In early/mid-September it returned to north central Nevada then flew to north central Wyoming before migrating south in late September (Fig. 1).

Figure 1.  Movements of one American White Pelican instrumented with PTT 5717 from 2 May 1997 through 9 November 1997.

These movements provide an example of connectivity among the wetlands of the Great Basin and adjacent regions and to migratory and wintering areas, and are representative of the useful information that can be obtained using the Argos satellite telemetry system. The data are giving us an understanding of the timing and possible impetus for such movements and a better handle on why and how pelicans are able to exploit temporal resources throughout their range.

Along those lines, we are also looking more closely at local movements during the breeding season.  Sharp declines in breeding success at Anaho Island through 2004 corresponded with regional drought conditions, raising questions about the availability and quality of forage available to breeders.  Managers particularly wanted to know the effective foraging range and presumed foraging sites of Anaho birds.  We assembled GIS products, assessing presumed foraging trips and locales for our 1996-98 subjects, and made ground visits to assess current viability of some sites suggested by our data as ephemeral or marginal resources.  We found that, although many presumed foraging trips were less lengthy, it was not unusual for Anaho breeders to forage 160 kilometers or more from the island.

Questions and comments regarding the Raptor Research Center: mark_fuller@usgs.gov
Questions and comments regarding this website: kbledsoe@boisestate.edu

  This page was last reviewed on 20 February 2007.