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Gannet Colony, Cape Coast, Hawke’s Bay

December 12, 2010 by  
Filed under Featured Content

“Cape Kidnappers is on the Cape Coast, a headland at the southeastern extremity of Hawke Bay on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. It is located 20 kilometres southeast of the city of Napier. The promontory sits at the end of an eight kilometre long peninsula that protrudes into the Pacific Ocean.

It was named after an attempt by local Māori to abduct the servant of a member of Captain Cook’s crew aboard HMS Endeavour, during a landfall at the Cape on 15 October 1769. The crew member was Tiata, a Tahitian accompanying Cook’s interpreter Tupaia. Cook’s journal states that Tiata was in the water near Endeavour when a Māori fishing boat pulled alongside and dragged him aboard.

Sailors from Endeavour′s deck immediately opened fire on the fishing boat, killing two Māori and wounding a third. Tiata promptly jumped overboard and swam back to Endeavour, while the remaining Māori paddled their craft back to shore. A 4-pounder cannon was fired after them from Endeavour′s quarterdeck, but the Māori boat was soon out of range. Cook described the Cape as having steep white cliffs on either side, with two large rocks resembling hay stacks near the headland.

Cape Kidnappers Gannet Colony

The Cape is presently the site of a large Australasian Gannet colony. The Australasian Gannet (Morus serrator or Sula bassana, also Australian Gannet, Tākapu) is a large seabird of the gannet family Sulidae. Young birds are black in their first year, and gradually acquire more white in subsequent seasons until they reach maturity after five years.

Adults have a white body with dark wing tips, and the head is yellow with a pale blue-grey bill. Their breeding habitat is on islands off Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand. They normally nest in large colonies on coastal islands. A large exception is the protected colony on the mainland at Cape Kidnappers (5000 pairs).

Gannet pairs may remain together over several seasons. They perform elaborate greeting rituals at the nest, stretching their bills and necks skywards and gently tapping bills together. The adults mainly stay close to colonies, whilst the younger birds disperse.

These birds are plunge divers and spectacular fishers, plunging into the ocean at high speed. They mainly eat squid and forage fish which school near the surface. Numbers of Australasian Gannet have been increasing since 1950, although some colonies have disappeared and others have decreased in size.”

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