Planet of Birds

Cape Gannet (Morus capensis) Science Article 7 abstract Food transit rates in the JackassP enguin (Spheniscusd emersus), a piscivorous seabird, are slower (Duffy et al. 1985) than rates of birds with other diets (Warner 1981). However, digestive performance by the Jackass Penguin may not be typical of fish-eating seabirds. Food transit rates through the digestive […]

Cape Gannet (Morus capensis) Science Article 3 abstract Cape Gannets Morus capensis breed at only six coastal islandsoff Namibia and South Africa (Table 1, Fig. 1). They are thethird most-ringed birds in southern Africa, with some 140 000ringed since 1950 (Oschadleus & Underhill 1999). Most ringingrecords since 1975 have been captured electronically. Oschadleus, H.D. & […]

Cape Gannet (Morus capensis) Science Article 4 abstract Cape gannets (Morus capensis) breed at six colonies in Namibia and South Africa. Population size averaged about 250 000 pairs overthe period 1956/1957-1968/1969 and about 150 000 pairs from 1978/1979 to 2005/2006. Over the whole 50-y period, numbers atthe three Namibian colonies fell by 85-98%, with greater […]

Cape Gannet (Morus capensis) Science Article 5 abstract 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 […]

Cape Gannet (Morus capensis) Science Article 6 abstract Age-related changes in lipid, water, and non-lipid content and energy density of four major body parts (integument, viscera, leg and pectoral muscles, and carcass) of Cape Gannet chicks, juveniles, and adults were studied. The proportion ofwater was typically high for neonates and decreased during development to near […]

Cape Gannet (Morus capensis) Science Article 2 abstract At 12h15 on 20 September 1995, on approach to Malgas Island (3303S, 1755E) in the West Coast National Park, Western Cape Province, South Africa, we observed an adult bull CapeFur Seal Arctocephalus pusillus on the island near a small group of Cape Gannet Morus capensis nests. It […]

Cape Gannet (Morus capensis) Science Article 1 abstract The Cape Gannet Morus capensis is an endemic seabird to southern Africa, breeding on offshore islands off Namibia and South Africa (Harrison 1985). After breeding, dispersal takes place as far as Mozambique, rarely Tanzania, on the east coast of Africa, and to the Gulf of Guinea on […]