Wildlife
Northern gannet
Gannets are magnificent seabirds, whose British population occupies many of Scotland’s offshore islands during the breeding season. Between March and September Britain is in fact home to nearly 70% of the world's breeding gannet population, making their habitat internationally important. Gannets feed on shoaling fish such as mackerel and herring and execute high speed, plunging dives from great heights, breaking the surface of the water like bullets. Within breeding colonies, adults and chicks are tightly packed together. Those who wander mistakenly into neighbouring patches are fiercely attacked.
Watch video clips from past programmes (5 clips)
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Body language
Nature's Calendar
Chris Packham explores the meaning of the many gannet gestures.
Chris Packham explores the meaning of the many gannet gestures.
Feeding time
Nature's Calendar
Chris Packham experiences the ultimate in Bass Rock gannet spectacles.
Chris Packham experiences the ultimate in Bass Rock gannet spectacles.
Vertical torpedo
Springwatch
Gannets plummet into the sea like darts reaching speeds up to 60mph.
Gannets plummet into the sea like darts reaching speeds up to 60mph.
Nature's harpoons
Live 'n' Deadly
Gannets plunge 30 metres to hit the water like feathery torpedoes and spear their prey.
Gannets plunge 30 metres to hit the water like feathery torpedoes and spear their prey.
Colonial Britain
British Isles - A Natural History
Britain's coastline is littered with dozens of seabird colonies.
Britain's coastline is littered with dozens of seabird colonies.
Distribution
Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.
The Northern gannet can be found in a number of locations including: Europe, United Kingdom, Wales. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
Habitats
The following habitats are found across the Northern gannet distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Behaviours
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Helpless young
Migration
Carnivorous
Colonial
Courtship display
Adapted to flying
Acoustic communication
Maternal care
Monogamous
Egg layer
Parental investment
Predator
Social
Swarming
Visual communicationAdditional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Conservation Status
Least Concern
- EX - Extinct
- EW
- CR - Threatened
- EN - Threatened
- VU - Threatened
- NT
- LC - Least concern
Year assessed: 2009
Classified by: IUCN 3.1
About
The Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) is a seabird and is the largest member of the gannet family, Sulidae.
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Classification
- Life
- Animals
- Vertebrates
- Birds
- Pelicans, cormorants and gannets
- Sulidae
- Gannets
- Northern gannet
Sounds
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Gannet calls (00:33)
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A gannet colony (03:13)
BBC News about Northern gannet
- Gannet colony's population spurt The number of gannets breeding on an island off the Pembrokeshire coast is continuing to increase, a new survey has revealed.
Video collections
Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.
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Seaside spectacular
When it comes to summer holidays, there's no better place than the seaside and if you know where to look you'll be surprised at the wildlife you can find.
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Life in slow motion
Slow motion filming techniques transform amazing wildlife moments into full scale events, and simple action into incredibly detailed video sequences.
Elsewhere on the BBC
Elsewhere on the web
- Animal Diversity Web (animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu)
- All about the northern gannet (allaboutbirds.org)
- ARKive: images of life on earth (arkive.org)
- A guide to the gannet (birdguides.com)
- Information on the UK's gannets (rspb.org.uk)
- Introduction to the gannets of Scotland (seabird.org)
- Northern Gannet (wikipedia.org)
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