Caring for Cape Town's cormorants

Left to fend for themselves by their parents, hundreds of cormorant chicks have been saved from certain death by the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCOBB).

The avian orphans' sudden abandonment was noticed at cormorant nesting sites on rocky outcrops off Robben Island, the location of Nelson Mandela's apartheid imprisonment.

800 of the 2,000 cormorants brought into the Cape Town sanctuary have since succumbed to weakness and dehydration, but the survivors are thriving and have since developed a healthy appetite, devouring a tonne of sardines each week.

Unable to manage food by themselves, the most diminutive chicks are hand fed and hydrated by syringe, a job undertaken by the 50 or so volunteers who pitch in at the centre.

Having reached a healthy weight, the young seabirds are relocated to a larger enclosure. Following the growth of the plumage feathers that render them waterproof, the cormorants will be returned to the wild. SANCOBB manager Nicky Stander has been overseeing the chicks' recovery.

Nicky Stander: “We will probably start looking at releasing the bigger birds in the next three weeks hopefully and the smaller birds will obviously be here in the next two to three months."

Following consultations with scientists, SANCOBB have determined food shortages as being the most likely reason for the mysterious mass stranding. As Nicky Stander explains, this may signal the start of a worrying trend.

Nicky Stander: "What we’re scared of is this is going to happen more and more in the future. If, if they’re not having, if they’re not finding their fish in the wild, what's going to happen? They’re going to either stop breeding or if they do breed, they’re going to just abandon if they’re not finding enough food. And what’s the knock-on effect of that is that the population continues to decline until they become extinct." View Less