Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Archosauromorpha
Cladus: Crurotarsi
Divisio: Archosauria
Cladus: Avemetatarsalia
Cladus: Ornithodira
Subtaxon: Dinosauromorpha
Cladus: Dinosauriformes
Cladus: Dracohors
Cladus: Dinosauria
Ordo: Saurischia
Cladus: Eusaurischia
Cladus: Theropoda
Cladus: Neotheropoda
Cladus: Averostra
Cladus: Tetanurae
Cladus: Avetheropoda
Cladus: Coelurosauria
Cladus: Tyrannoraptora
Cladus: Maniraptoromorpha
Cladus: Maniraptoriformes
Cladus: Maniraptora
Cladus: Pennaraptora
Cladus: Paraves
Cladus: Eumaniraptora
Cladus: Avialae
Infraclassis: Aves
Cladus: Euavialae
Cladus: Avebrevicauda
Cladus: Pygostylia
Cladus: Ornithothoraces
Cladus: Ornithuromorpha
Cladus: Carinatae
Parvclassis: Neornithes
Cohors: Neognathae
Cladus: Neoaves
Cladus: Aequornithes
Ordo: Suliformes
Familia: Sulidae
Genus: Morus
Species: M. bassanus – M. capensis – M. serrator
Name
Morus Vieillot, 1816
References
Analyse D'Une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire: 63.
Vernacular names
Afrikaans: Malgasse
Ænglisc: Ganet
مصرى: اخرق
العربية: أخرق
Cymraeg: Hugan
dansk: Sule
Deutsch: Tölpel
English: Gannet
Esperanto: Suloj
فارسی: سفیدغاز
suomi: Valkosuulat
føroyskt: Súla
Nordfriisk: Genten
français: Fou
Gaeilge: Gainéad
Gàidhlig: Sùlaire
עברית: סולת גנט
հայերեն: Խևահավեր
Ido: Ganeto
italiano: Sula
日本語: シロカツオドリ属
മലയാളം: ഗന്നെറ്റ്
မြန်မာဘာသာ: ဂန္နက်ငှက်
Nederlands: Jan-van-gent
norsk: Havsule
پنجابی: گینٹ
slovenščina: Strmoglavci
svenska: Havssula
தமிழ்: கேன்னட்டு
українська: Сула
中文: 塘鵝
Gannets are seabirds comprising the genus Morus, in the family Sulidae, closely related to boobies. "Gannet" is derived from Old English ganot, ultimately from the same Old Germanic root as "gander".[1] Morus is derived from Ancient Greek moros, "foolish", due to lack of fear shown by breeding gannets and boobies, allowing them to be easily killed.[2]
Gannets are large white birds with yellowish heads; black-tipped wings; and long bills. Northern gannets are the largest seabirds in the North Atlantic, having a wingspan of up to two metres (6+1⁄2 feet). The other two species occur in the temperate seas around southern Africa, southern Australia, and New Zealand.
Gannets hunt fish by diving into the sea from a height and pursuing their prey underwater, and have a number of adaptations:
They have no external nostrils; they are located inside the mouth, instead.
They have air sacs in the face and chest under the skin, which act like bubble wrap, cushioning the impact with the water.
The position of their eyes is far enough forward on the face for binocular vision, allowing them to judge distances accurately.
Gannets can dive from a height of 30 m (100 ft), achieving speeds of 100 km/h (60 mph) as they strike the water, enabling them to catch fish at a much greater depth than most airborne birds.
The gannet's supposed capacity for eating large quantities of fish has led to "gannet" becoming a description of somebody with a voracious appetite.
Mating and nesting
A northern gannet in Bonaventure Island's colony
Gannet, Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire
Gannets are colonial breeders on islands and coasts, normally laying one chalky-blue egg. They lack brood patches and use their webbed feet to warm the eggs.[3] They reach maturity around 5 years of age. First-year birds are completely black, and subsequent subadult plumages show increasing amounts of white.
Northern gannets
The most important nesting ground for northern gannets is the United Kingdom, with about two-thirds of the world's population. These live mainly in Scotland, including the Shetland Isles. The rest of the world's northern-gannet population nests in Canada, Ireland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland, with small numbers in France (they are often seen in the Bay of Biscay), the Channel Islands, Norway, and a single colony in Germany on Heligoland. The biggest northern-gannet colony is on Scotland's Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth; in 2014, this colony contained some 75,000 pairs.[4] Sulasgeir off the coast of the Isle of Lewis, St. Kilda, Grassholm in Pembrokeshire, Bempton Cliffs in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Sceilig Bheag, Ireland, and Bonaventure Island, Quebec, are also important northern-gannet breeding sites.
Systematics and evolution
Gannet in the Celtic Sea – Ireland
The three gannet species are now usually placed in the genus Morus, Abbott's booby in Papasula, and the remaining boobies in Sula. However, some authorities believe that all nine sulid species should be considered congeneric, in Sula. At one time, the various gannet species were considered to be a single species.
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Morus bassanus | Northern gannet (also known as "solan goose") | North Atlantic on coasts influenced by the Gulf Stream |
 |
Morus capensis | Cape gannet | Southern Africa in three islands off Namibia and three islands off South Africa |
 |
Morus serrator | Australasian gannet | Coast of New Zealand, Victoria, and Tasmania |
Most fossil gannets are from the Late Miocene or Pliocene, when the diversity of seabirds in general was much higher than today. The cause the decline in species at the end of the Pleistocene is not clear; increased competition due to the spread of marine mammals may have played a role.
The genus Morus is much better documented in the fossil record than Sula, though the latter is more numerous today. The reasons are not clear; boobies possibly were better adapted or simply "lucky" to occur in the right places for dealing with the challenges of the Late Pliocene ecological change, or many more fossil boobies could still await discovery. Notably, gannets are today restricted to temperate oceans, while boobies are also found in tropical waters, whereas several of the prehistoric gannet species had a more equatorial distribution than their congeners of today.
Fossil species of gannets are:
Morus loxostylus (Early Miocene of EC USA) – includes M. atlanticus
Morus olsoni (Middle Miocene of Romania)
Morus lompocanus (Lompoc Late Miocene of Lompoc, USA)[5]
Morus magnus (Late Miocene of California)
Morus peruvianus (Pisco Late Miocene of Peru)
Morus vagabundus (Temblor Late Miocene of California)[5]
Morus willetti (Late Miocene of California) – formerly in Sula[5]
Morus sp. (Temblor Late Miocene of Sharktooth Hill, US: Miller 1961) – possibly M. magnus
Morus sp. 1 (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, US)
Morus sp. 2 (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, US)
Morus peninsularis (Early Pliocene)
Morus recentior (Middle Pliocene of California, US)
Morus reyanus – Del Rey gannet (Late Pleistocene of W US)[5]
Cultural references
In many parts of the United Kingdom, the term "gannet" is used to refer to people who steadily eat vast quantities of food, especially at public functions.[6]
Young gannets were historically used as a food source, a tradition still practised in Ness, Scotland, where they are called "guga". Like examples of continued traditional whale harvesting, the modern-day hunting of gannet chicks results in great controversies as to whether it should continue to be afforded "exemption from the ordinary protection afforded to sea birds in UK and EU law". The Ness hunt is currently limited to 2,000 chicks per year, and dates back at least to the Iron Age. The hunt is considered to be sustainable, as between 1902 and 2003, gannet numbers in Scotland increased dramatically from 30,000 to 180,000.[7][8]
In "The Bookshop Sketch", originally from At Last the 1948 Show (1967), a customer (Marty Feldman) asks the bookshop proprietor (John Cleese) for "the expurgated version" of Olsen's Standard Book of British Birds, "the one without the gannet", because he does not like gannets due to their "long nasty beaks". Desperate to satisfy the customer, the proprietor tears the page about the gannet out of the book.[9][10] The sketch is reprised in Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album, where the customer (Graham Chapman) says he does not like the gannet because "they wet their nests."[11]
In Series 1, Episode 3 of The F Word, Gordon Ramsay travels to the northwestern coast of Scotland and is shown how to prepare, cook, and eat gannet.[12]
References
"gannet". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 260. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
Tucker, B.W. "Brood-patches and the physiology of incubation" (PDF). British Birds. 37 (2): 22–28.
Munro, Alistair (18 March 2015). "Scotland's gannet population soars across country". The Scotsman. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
Miller, Loye (September–October 1961). "Birds from the Miocene of Sharktooth Hill, California" (PDF). The Condor. 63 (5): 399–402. doi:10.2307/1365299. JSTOR 1365299.
"Gannet: definition of gannet in Oxford dictionary (British & World English)". 2014-07-06.
"The Hebridean guga hunt is 'ancient and sustainable', not a crime". TheGuardian.com. 2014-07-06.
"BBC News – Gaga for guga: Ten things on Scottish island delicacy". 2014-07-06.
"The Bookshop Sketch", MontyPython.net
Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: HarvestGod (26 November 2009). "Monty Python – Bookshop Sketch (Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album)" – via YouTube.
William Young (2014). The Fascination of Birds: From the Albatross to the Yellowthroat. Dover Publications. p. 121.
Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Gordon Ramsay's The F Word Season 1 Episode 3". YouTube.
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