NESTING SEABIRDS OF THE GULF OF ALASKA 



57 



appeared to be most numerous, but there were 

 large numbers of nonbreeding birds. In 1936 

 he located "a good sized colony" of red-faced 

 cormorants at Unga in the Shumagin Islands. 

 He found about 300 birds starting their nests 

 on 16 May. 



In August 1946 Gabrielson (Gabrielson and 

 Lincoln 1959) visited the colony at Delarof 

 Harbor, Unga, where several thousand cor- 

 morants were observed. From a number of 

 small samples he estimated that the red-faced 

 cormorants outnumbered pelagic cormorants 

 five to two. In 1973 I observed about 2,000 

 cormorants, mostly red-faced, in this colony. 

 Gabrielson also located them at two other 

 sites in the Shumagin s and at Aghiyuk Island 

 in the Semidi Islands. 



Howell (1948) noted only double-crested cor- 

 morants at Double Island, Kodiak. Shortly 

 after that the leaflet, Birds of the Kodiak Is- 

 land National Wildlife Refuge (first issued in 

 1955), listed red- faced cormorants as common 

 summer residents. The red-faced cormorant 

 was next found at Katchemak Bay about 

 1963. Isleib (Isleib and Kessel 1973) first 

 noticed red-faced cormorants wintering in 

 Prince William Sound in 1969. In July 1972 

 Isleib and Sowl had found a colony containing 

 75 nests at Point Elrington at the western ap- 

 proach to Prince William Sound. By 1974 

 Isleib and Haddock (unpublished data, FWS, 

 Anchorage, Alaska) found them east of the 

 Copper River Delta at Wingham Island. 



The relatively rapid expansion of the range 

 and apparent population size of the red-faced 

 cormorant is remarkable. But has this been a 

 real expansion into vast stretches of new ter- 

 ritory? The record in the literature which I 

 have summarized shows, I think, something 

 else. We can demonstrate a historical range 

 for the red-faced cormorant that extends on 

 the Asiatic Coast from North Cape, Siberia, 

 south to the Kurile Islands, the entire Aleu- 

 tian Arc including the Commander Islands, 

 all the Bering Sea islands north to Bering 

 Strait, Norton Sound, Nelson Island, and the 

 islands south of the Alaska Peninsula at least 

 as far east as Kodiak Island. The recently 

 occupied coast from Cook Inlet to the Copper 

 River may represent a real range extension. 

 The breeding range of this species at the 

 present time does not include parts of its his- 

 torical range west of the Commander Islands 



or north of the Pribilof Islands. 



The fragmentary record appears to show a 

 long-term perturbation in the range and popu- 

 lations of the red-faced cormorant that covers 

 at least 100 years. I believe that we are prob- 

 ably seeing a recovery of lost range and a re- 

 turn to something resembling a former distri- 

 bution and abundance. 



What caused the perturbation? I am not 

 prepared to answer this question, but there 

 are two occurrences which I find suggestive. 



It is interesting to note (Dement 'ev and 

 Gladkov 1966) that on the Commander Is- 

 lands the red-faced cormorant was most abun- 

 dant during the first 50-odd years after the 

 pelagic cormorants had been wiped out in the 

 winter of 1876-77. Perhaps some clues are to 

 be found in the interactions between these 

 similar species. 



It does not appear that the introduction of 

 fox could have been a causative factor. The 

 first observations of population expansion 

 were noted almost concurrently with the hey- 

 day of the fox-farming industry. Because of 

 its choice of nesting habitat (very steep cliffs), 

 this cormorant would not have been affected 

 by predators except for the one that went into 

 a very rapid population decline at a time that 

 would fit the Aleut. 



Jochelson (1968) and Hrdlicka (1945) sum- 

 marized references to Aleut clothing in the 

 diaries and reports of early Russian visitors 

 to the Aleutian Islands. Evidently Aleut 

 women sometimes wore a long, robe-like 

 parka made of harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) 

 skins or, for women of high rank, parkas made 

 of sea otter (Enhydra lutra). The men in al- 

 most all reports were said to have worn bird- 

 skin parkas; puffins and guillemots appear to 

 have been preferred, but cormorants were 

 sometimes used. It took about 40 puffin skins 

 to fabricate a parka and a man evidently 

 needed from one to three of these garments 

 each year. 



Sea otter populations were drastically re- 

 duced by Russian hunters. Rats were intro- 

 duced to the Aleutians very early during the 

 Russian period and must have had a substan- 

 tial impact on populations of tufted puffins 

 and guillemots. The introduction of fox would 

 have had a further impact on burrow-nesting 

 birds. Turner (1885) noted that Aleuts in the 

 Near Islands kept the fox confined to Attu so 



