Gannet breeding population in Ireland (1 Viewer)

[Gonçalo Elias]

Hi everyone,

I was looking at some figures about the Gannet population in Ireland and found some puzzling numbers.

• According to Birdlife's Birds in Europe 2 (published in 2004), the Irish population comprises 33,000 pairs.
• However, according to the European Red List of Birds (published in 2015), there are some 400,000 pairs.

If both figures are correct, the Gannet population in Ireland got twelve times bigger in just 10 years.

This looks like a HUGE increase. Can somebody please let me know if these figures are accurate?

Print screens attached.

Thanks.
Gonçalo

 

[jogresh]

Hi Goncalo, the Birdwatch Ireland website partly answers the question. 3 main breeding sites, by far the largest - Little Skellig - having 26000 nests (not pairs). So the total for all 3 must be much less than c. 75000 nests. This might correspond with the figure of 33,000 pairs..
Edit: Wiki gives Little Skellig as 30,000 pairs from Cocker (2013), and another BWI webpage gives 35000 pairs (not nests) on Little Skellig, so.. 🤷
Hopefully someone will be along soon who has accurate data. 👍

Gannet - BirdWatch Ireland

The main Gannet colonies in Ireland are located on Great Saltee, Co. Wexford, the Bull Rock, Co. Cork and on Little Skellig in Co. Kerry.

birdwatchireland.ie

 

[Gonçalo Elias]

Thanks Mike.

I found the 400 thousand total a bit too stretched, but as I don't know the sites I have no idea of their importance.

Any additional info shall be welcome.

 

[Gonçalo Elias]

I have received a reply from BirdLife about this:

400k pairs in Ireland must have been an error in 2015.
It was not perpetuated in the latest 2021 assessment, where the Irish Government reported to the EC a population of 47,946 pairs:
https://nature-art12.eionet.europa.eu/article12/summary?period=3&subject=Morus+bassanus&reported_name=

Which was also reflected in our assessment:
https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/pdf/166314602/attachment

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

The new Seabirds Count book (Burnell et al) gives an estimate of 64000 AONs in 2021 for Ireland. Site estimates are Little Skellig 39800; Clare Island 1500; Bull Rock 9400; Great Saltee 8000; Ireland's Eye 400; Lambay Island 4900.

 

[Gonçalo Elias]

The new Seabirds Count book (Burnell et al) gives an estimate of 64000 AONs in 2021 for Ireland. Site estimates are Little Skellig 39800; Clare Island 1500; Bull Rock 9400; Great Saltee 8000; Ireland's Eye 400; Lambay Island 4900.

Thanks Andrew.