Between air and water: the plunge dive of the CapeGannetMorus capensis

Gannets have one of the most spectacular prey-capture behaviours of all marine predators,plummeting from up to 30 m into the water, where they seize fish with their razor-sharpbeaks. However, there is little detailed information on this brief behaviour. In January and December 2002, we monitored the biomechanics of plunge diving in 25 free-ranging CapeGannets Morus capensis using a recently developed, rapid-sampling acceleration and depthrecorder.

YAN ROPERT-COUDERT et al., Ibis(2004),146, 281-290