| Gannet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Northern gannets (Morus bassanus) onHeligoland | |
| Northern gannet calls recorded onGrassholm Island,Wales | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Suliformes |
| Family: | Sulidae |
| Genus: | Morus Vieillot, 1816 |
| Type species | |
| Pelecanus bassanus Linnaeus, 1758 | |
| Species | |
| Synonyms | |
Moris | |
Gannets areseabirds comprising the genusMorus in thefamilySulidae, closely related toboobies. They are known as 'solan' or 'solan goose' in Scotland. A common misconception is that the Scottish name is 'guga' but this is the Gaelic name referring to the chicks only.
Gannets are large whitebirds with yellowish heads, black-tipped wings and long bills. Northern gannets are the largestseabirds in the NorthAtlantic, having a wingspan of up to two metres (6+1⁄2 feet). The other two species occur in the temperate seas aroundsouthern Africa, southern Australia, and New Zealand.
"Gannet" is derived fromOld Englishganot, meaning "gander."[1]
Morus is derived fromAncient Greekμωρόςmoros "stupid"[2] or "foolish" due to lack of fear shown by breeding gannets and boobies, allowing them to be easily killed.[3]
Gannets huntfish bydiving into the sea from a height of 30 m (100 ft) and pursuing their prey underwater, and have a number of adaptations:
Gannets can achieve speeds of 100 km/h (62.13 mph) as they strike the water, enabling them to catch fish at a much greater depth than most airborne birds.[5]
The gannet's supposed capacity for eating large quantities of fish has led to "gannet" becoming a description of somebody with a voracious appetite.[6]
Gannets are colonial breeders on islands and coasts, normally laying one chalky-blue egg. They lackbrood patches and use their webbed feet to warm the eggs.[7] They reach maturity around 5 years of age. First-year birds are completely black, and subsequent subadult plumages show increasing amounts of white.
The most important nesting ground fornorthern gannets is the United Kingdom, with about two-thirds of the world's population. These live mainly in Scotland, including theShetland Isles. The rest of the world's northern-gannet population nests in Canada, Ireland, theFaroe Islands, andIceland, with small numbers in France (they are present in theBay of Biscay), theChannel Islands, Norway, and a single colony in Germany onHeligoland. The biggest northern-gannet colony is on Scotland'sBass Rock in the Firth of Forth; in 2014, this colony contained some 75,000 pairs.[8] Sulasgeir off the coast of theIsle of Lewis,St Kilda,Grassholm inPembrokeshire,Bempton Cliffs in theEast Riding of Yorkshire,Sceilig Bheag, Ireland,Cape St Mary's, Newfoundland, andBonaventure Island,Quebec, are also important northern-gannet breeding sites.
The three gannetspecies are now usually placed in the genusMorus,Abbott's booby inPapasula, and the remaining boobies inSula. However, some authorities believe that all nine sulid species should be considered congeneric, inSula. At one time, the various gannet species were considered to be a single species.
| Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern gannet (also known as "solan goose")
| Morus bassanus (Lichtenstein, MHC, 1823) | North Atlantic on coasts influenced by theGulf Stream_world.png) | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Cape gannet
| Morus capensis Milne-Edwards, 1882 | Southern Africa in three islands offNamibia and three islands offSouth Africa | Size: Habitat: Diet: | EN |
| Australasian gannet
| Morus serrator (Gray, GR, 1843) | Coasts ofNew Zealand,Victoria, andTasmania | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
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Most fossil gannets are from the LateMiocene orPliocene, when the diversity ofseabirds in general was much higher than today. The cause the decline in species at the end of the Pleistocene is not clear; increased competition due to the spread ofmarine mammals may have played a role.
The genusMorus is much better documented in thefossil record thanSula, though the latter is more numerous today. The reasons are not clear; boobies possibly were better adapted or simply "lucky" to occur in the right places for dealing with the challenges of the Late Pliocene ecological change, or many more fossil boobies could still await discovery. Notably, gannets are today restricted to temperate oceans, while boobies are also found in tropical waters, whereas several of the prehistoric gannet species had a moreequatorial distribution than their congeners of today.
Fossil species of gannets are:
In many parts of the United Kingdom, the term "gannet" is used to refer to people who steadily eat vast quantities of food, especially at public functions.[10]
Young gannets were historically used as a food source, a tradition still practised inNess, Scotland, where they are called "guga". Like examples ofcontinued traditional whale harvesting, the modern-day hunting of gannet chicks results in great controversies as to whether it should continue to be given "exemption from the ordinary protection afforded to sea birds in UK and EU law". The Ness hunt is currently limited to 2,000 chicks per year and dates back at least to the Iron Age. The hunt is considered to be sustainable, since between 1902 and 2003 gannet numbers in Scotland increased dramatically from 30,000 to 180,000.[11][12]
In The Bookshop Sketch, originally fromAt Last the 1948 Show (1967), a customer (Marty Feldman) asks the bookshop proprietor (John Cleese) for "the expurgated version" ofOlsen's Standard Book of British Birds, "the one without the gannet", because he does not like gannets owing to their "long nasty beaks". Desperate to satisfy the customer, the proprietor tears the page about the gannet out of the book, only for the customer then to refuse to buy it because it is damaged.[13][14] The sketch is reprised inMonty Python's Contractual Obligation Album, where the customer (Graham Chapman) says he does not like the gannet because "they wet their nests."[15]
In Series 1, Episode 3, ofThe F Word, Gordon Ramsay travels to the northwestern coast of Scotland and is shown how to prepare, cook and eat gannet.[16]
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