Nigel the gannet dies without ever finding romance as he lived alone, surrounded by fake birds and spent four years courting a decoy on Mana Island, New Zealand.
It’s a tragic love story that Nigel’s body was found next to the imitation female he had loved for so long in the nest and would break even the stoniest of hearts.
For three years Nigel the lonely gannet tried to cement his relationship with the object of his affections and even built her a home on Mana Island, off New Zealand’s Kapiti Coast.
Ranger Chris Bell, who discovered the gannet’s corpse last week, said he was ‘incredibly sad’ to lose him, just as three real birds had joined the colony.
Around 80 concrete birds were put on the island’s west side in 1976, but they never managed to attract the real thing and were eventually overgrown by weeds.
“It would have been nice if he had been able to hold on a few more years and found a partner and breed.”
Bell said there were hopes that the three new gannets would stay and breed on the island, establishing the colony that Nigel unwittingly began.
“His legacy was that he was the first coloniser and, if this turns into a real colony, he will always have been the first.
“It’s because of Nigel that the other gannets know about Mana … maybe in six months’ time there will be a happy story to tell.”
‘This just feels like the wrong ending to the story,’ he said. ‘He died right at the beginning of something great.
It was the first time in 40 years that a gannet had flown in to roost there, but instead of bringing a partner Nigel quickly became infatuated with one of the 80 decoys designed to lure the seabirds to the island.
New Zealand conservationists mourn loss of celebrated bird that was lured by replica gannets in the hope of establishing a breeding colony.
>Juthy Saha
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