Marking Loons, Making Progress
By Walter Piper, Charles Walcott, Jay Mager
Striking discoveries about the social behavior and communication of common loons are revealed by a low-tech approach: individual marking of study animals
This Article From Issue
May-June 2011
Volume 99, Number 3
Page 220
DOI: 10.1511/2011.90.220
Anyone who has spent time on lakes in the northern United States or Canada is familiar with the common loon. Its haunting calls are emblematic of wild places. They captivate the listener. The ringing tremolo, for example, suggests maniacal laughter; the wail recalls the distant cry of a person in distress. Despite their humanlike qualities, though, the vocalizations of loons are acoustically complex and not easily deciphered by humans.
Photograph courtesy of Carol Henderson.
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