Population dynamics of the American white pelican colony at Chase Lake, North Dakota

American white pelicans in the central United States breed primarily in the northern Great Plains and winter in the Lower Mississippi Valley and along the Gulf of Mexico. White pelicans have been identified as one of the principal hosts in the life cycle of several commercial catfish parasites, especially digenetic trematodes. Pelicans come into conflict with southeastern aquaculture by exploiting the abundant and readily available fish food source in aquaculture ponds, but also potentially transmitting detrimental parasites to uncontaminated fish (King 1997). Exacerbating the problem, many white pelican colonies east of the Rocky Mountains are rapidly increasing in size, possibly because of increased precipitation resulting in higher [...]