Abandoned Eggs at Muriwai Gannet Colony, West Auckland
Monday 6 December 2010, 3:18PM
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Abandoned Eggs at Muriwai Gannet Colony, West Auckland Credit:
Coast to Coast Tours
The Muriwai beach gannets are abandoning their eggs.
The rocks are becoming devoid of birds as they leave the colony. Their eggs are exposed to the elements to simply perish.
And, the perplexing question is; "Why?"
Park Rangers speculate low fish supplies, that maybe there isn't enough food to support this year's population?
As a local Auckland tour operator (whose family have lived in the Muriwai region since 1922), we have never seen this happen before. Is this Global Warming / Climate Change?
Obviously these birds know the reason and are acting on it.