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.