Saturday 31 January 2015

2014 breeding season results: New record

As a regular task of the wardens employed by BirdLife in coordination with Souss Massa National park, monitoring of the colonies is essential to evaluate the evolution of the population

Regular monitoring of the population produced the following results:

SMNP
TAMRI
SMNP & TAMRI
Site A
Site F
Site E
Total
Pairs
20
20
21
61
63
124
Pairs laying eggs
19
18
21
58
57
115
Hatchlings
35
41
53
129
151
280
Fledglings
30
36
46
112
80
192
Chick survival (%)
58,7
87,8
86,7
86,8
52,9
68,5
Productivity
1,6
2
2,2
1,9
1,4
1,6

A productivity of 1.6 fledglings per pair is very successful for this species. In fact, if we compare these parameters with the previous year we get

SMNP
Tamri
SMNP + Tamri
2013
2014
2013
2014
2013
2014
Pairs
51
61
62
63
118
124
Pairs laying eggs
53
58
60
57
113
115
Hatchlings
101
129
161
151
262
280
Fledglings
77
112
71
80
148
192
Chick survival (%)
76.2
86.8
44
52.9
56.4
68.5
Productivity
1.4
1.9
1.1
1.4
1.3
1.6

The evolution becomes evident if we compare among years

Figure 1 Evolution of the number of pairs and fledglings in Souss-Massa and Tamri area

We can see that both the number of pairs and fledglings is the highest ever recorded in Morocco since the beginning of NBI conservation program in the 1990s.

In addition to the very successful breeding records, the regular census at roosts, gave at least 524 individuals. The evolution of the population is shown in the following figure.

Figure 2  Evolution of the post breeding numbers of NBI in Souss-Massa and Tamri area

In 2004, the count was 528 individuals, only slightly over the current record.
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