The gannet won hearts with his devotion to a concrete decoy on an uninhabited New Zealand island. His story shines a light on efforts to repopulate the island.
And this is Nigel with his two concrete friends. (Nigel is in the background. The two gannets in front are made of concrete.)
The story of a lonely seabird named Nigel who tried to woo a mate that had a heart of stone and died on an uninhabited island off New Zealand has captivated many on social media.
Footage of the bird preening and cooing as he fruitlessly courted a decoy made of concrete has been watched obsessively online. Though his chosen partner kept a cold silence, Nigel, a gannet, won the affection of visitors and conservationists alike.
His solitary life shined a light on a yearslong effort by an army of conservationists, devoted volunteers and others to repopulate his species on the island.
News of the seabird’s death in late January hit the island’s caretakers and social media users hard.
“It seems like such a wrong ending for Nigel to die now,” said Chris Bell, 37, a ranger for the New Zealand Conservation Department, who found the seabird dead in his nest. “Just when it looked like it could get better for him.”
Nigel first landed on Mana Island a few years ago (conservationists differ on the year). Mana is about 16 miles, or 25.3 kilometers, northwest of Wellington, the capital. It’s also the site of an ambitious effort to establish a flourishing colony of Australasian gannets, which can be found in social clusters off the coast of Australia and New Zealand. But types of gannets have settled all over the world, including in Scotland.
In the 1990s, conservationists set up concrete gannets on the western side of Mana to lure real birds. They painted the decoys’ beaks yellow, the wingtips black, the plumage white. They played seabird calls over solar-powered speakers.
On the very first day, two gannets swooped in, Mr. Bell said by phone early Saturday. Conservationists congratulated themselves on their instant success. But soon, the birds flew away, and the project stalled.
He quickly took a liking to one of the concrete replicas, according to Mr. Bell, who says he’s the only full-time employee on the island. Month after month, the bird cozied up to his chosen mate, but “she” remained aloof.
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