Cooperative Bird Info. (fwd)

[FEUKAC@PLU.edu]

 Do any of these apply to possible pack or pack hunting behavior? 
Tuna also  feed in a specific formation


V  *     *     V
 V  *   * *   V         V=tuna
  V  * * * * V          *=prey(fish)
   V  ***** V   
    V******V         I've been told that they do this to concentrate the 
     VVVVVV                 number of fish in the center. (more efficent) 
      VVVV    

Aaron Feuk 
Prepartor,Dept. of Earth Sciences
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma,Wash. 98447
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 1995 18:26:34 PST 
>From:REYNOLAD%PEPPER@PLU.edu
To: FEUKAC@PLU.edu
Subject:Cooperative Bird Info. 

Hey Aaron,
        I was looking through my encyclopedia of birds and it mentioned a few
birds that use the cooperative food-getting.\
        "Some birds practice "flock feeding" to get food more efficiently -
Cormorants, anhingas, and pelicans join in bands to catch fishes; terns join in
in loose flocks in hunting for food, with a better chance of locating a school
of fishes than a lone bird would have; groups of white pelicans swim abreast or
in a semicircle to bring fishes close together or into shallows where they can
easily catch them; avocets and black-necked stilts have been seen banding
together in cooperative dives on small fishes and aquatic insects by wading in
water in compact spearhead or wedge-shaped formations, and 13,000 avocets have
been watched in such cooperative feeding efforts (Cottam,1942a)."
        Cottam, C.; Williams C.S.; and Sooter, C.A. 1942a. Cooperative Feeding
of White Pelicans. AUK 59(3):444-445.
        this is all from my Encyclopedia of North American Birds from the 
Audubon Society by John K. Terres - 1991.
        I'll still look to see if I can find any other birds that might do
this, but this was all I could find for right now.
        Anyway, I have to go.  I'll talk to ya later...
                                , April