Lambert’s Bay Bird Island is celebrating a big win in the world of bird conservation thanks to its Cape Gannet colony soaring to record numbers.
Lambert’s Bay Bird Island (22 January 2025) — The Cape Gannet colony that calls Lambert’s Bay Bird Island home has soared to record numbers, earmarking a big win for conservationists!
This is Southern Africa’s most successfully conserved Cape Gannet colony. The population growth is now sitting at 45,000 individuals; a big climb from the 30,000s plateau observed in the last five years and the largest population size in 19 years, as CapeNature shares with Good Things Guy.
Not just a product of local breeding success on the island, the numbers also suggest that Gannets from other colonies are flocking Bird Island-way. The soaring population is also largely the result of dedicated work from conservationists that includes daily monitoring patrols, top-tier management techniques and handling the ‘seal factor’.
Cape fur seals can prey on Gannet chicks. So, when the chick-fledging season comes around, and young Gannets take their first solo flights away from the colony and out into the ocean, it can mean trouble for a Gannet should they cross paths with a peckish seal.
However, the conservationists looking after Bird Island have acted on precaution by putting up an invisible barrier line that keeps seals to a specific area on the western side of the island. If the boundary is crossed by seals, they’re herded back to their slice of the island, keeping the ecosystem balanced.
Considering that in December 2005, on-land seal predation of the Gannets saw the entire colony of seabirds flee, the approach that sees careful monitoring and space-sharing has been critical to conservation efforts on Bird Island.
“Bird Island’s success is a valuable example of the effectiveness of hands-on conservation. We learn again that positive conservation outcomes often require persistent effort across several years,” reflects Dr Ashley Naidoo, CapeNature CEO.
“Through constant monitoring, proactive management of threats like seals and gulls, and a commitment to conserving the island’s unique ecosystem, Bird Island can claim to be the best-managed Gannet colony in Southern Africa.”
Sources: Supplied; CapeNature
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