Nigel and the Real Gannet

Rod and eggs, volcanic gas, death and decay. What do all these things have in common? Hey, it's me, Matt Kilti. Join Radio Lab on Wednesday, August 26th, for a live podcast taping of viscera gripping tales of the human body, where we will grab a hold of a long overlooked, much-maligned chemical element and element that can be found from the hospital room to outer space. Join us Wednesday, August 26th at 7 p.m. at caveat in New York City to learn how the smell of death might actually be the surest sign of life. Find out more at caveat.nyc/radiolab. Oh, wait, you're listening. OK. Come on. OK. Come on. Door listening to radio lab lab. Radio lab from W and Ys. Hey, this is Radio Lab. I'm lethifnossr. And today, we have a small story about a small life that touched people all over the world. OK, one, two, three. And it doesn't end the way you want it to. Oh, there's a dog. Get it up. You'll be fine up. OK. Comes to us from producer Annie McEwan. Hi, Annie. And it starts with the total loner. Yeah, exactly. OK, let's picture you. I imagine that you're tall and you stride around the island like hiking boots. Like, gosh, yes, tall. So tall, I've got quite bad posture and sort of lume around me. Also, you're hunching around the island. Hunching and stalking, yes, stowling. But under a sun hat, because the sun's pretty strong in New Zealand. And this is Chris Bell. And back about a decade ago, he was the sole inhabitant of an island off the west coast of New Zealand called Mana Island. Oh, gosh. It's like the perfect size of island. It's not too big and not too small. No, it's a tale. It takes about an hour and a half to walk across. Yeah, looking down. Yeah, of course. It's got cliffs, a high grassy plateau, shrubs in woodland, and Chris lived there in an old farmhouse. Yeah, I would stow and-- Did you make your own food all the time? Well, it was no one else to make it for me, so yeah. Although he did share the house with-- Handfuls of geckos. A whole bunch of geckos. As soon as evening came, you would hear them rattling about in the roof space. And sometimes he'd get human visitors, but-- Very common to go 10 days without seeing or hearing anybody else. Often he'd be totally alone. Yeah. OK. And why is he spurning civilization? What is he doing there? Well, this island was sort of in a state of recovery. Gosh, it was farmed for many years. For 100 plus years, it had been used as farmland. I think it was sheep and cattle. And well, all this time, the wildlife took a big hit. The sheep and the cows ate all the grass and trees. An invasive species arrived, particularly mice. And the mice ate the eggs of the birds and lizards that lived on the island and reduced this ecosystem to basically a wasteland. Peace. But then, in the 1980s, the Department of Conservation of New Zealand stepped in and got rid of all the mice and all the sheep. And once the mice were gone and planting restoration began-- They thought, let's use this island as a safe haven for fragile species who need a bit of tender, loving care and places to find their feet again. So the island was home to things like-- McGregor's skink and gold-striped gecko and the cookstreet giant wetto. The wetto? Which is a giant, lumbering grasshopper. Oh my god. There are kiwi birds, little blue penguins called cororas. So cute. This endangered bird called the Takahe, which is like a giant blue chicken. I mean, it absolutely shouldn't exist and almost didn't. And to protect all this fragility, the Department of Conservation installed a single human inhabitant, a ranger. In, for a time, that ranger was Chris. 14th of November, 2016, that evening was calm and mild. His journal from the island is filled with two diving petrol boroughs to check-- Counting seabirds. Counting grass for the better part of the day. Clearing meadows. Checking wax tags that monitor for invasive fruitlets. Keeping the island pest-free and just generally-- Clearing weeds, sticking culverts, tending the nursery, building and dismantling. Doing what needed doing. On a fine day, I took a backpack sprayer up to the Ganat colony. His work took him all over the islands sometimes as far as one of the more unusual conservation projects. It's a little off the main track. The Ganat colony. Do you know what a Ganat is? A Ganat? A seabird? Yeah, yes, but not just any seabird. Ganat's are seabird royal teeth. They're snowy white with black wing tips and yellow heads. I mean, they're beautiful flyers. They're a big bird, they're very elegant. They glide along. And when hunting for fish. They took their wings in and they're next stretched out. They're built down. They dive like fighter jets. It's the water in a big splash. I mean, one of the most spectacular sights you can see. And sounds you can hear. Like these birds are loud. Oh, it's incredibly noisy. It's-- it's-- Any mimic that sound? Absolutely not. Not in a million years. Please? No. I couldn't. Like, no. They sound like this. And on a regular basis, Chris would busy himself with-- Weeding the colony and scrubbing the Ganats. To remove the like and blooms that have colonized them. Because they'd be covered in moss. You know, it's not such a convincing or a luring feature of a bird if they've got moss growing on their heads. Wait, what? They have moss on their heads? They do. Because these Ganats are fake. The Ganats are fake. A bunch of concrete Ganats. Painted white with yellow heads, black wing tips. Placed around in kind of naturalistic positions. And this sound is recording, playing over speakers. And why did they make a bunch of fake Ganats? Well, the Department of Conservation put them there in the mid '90s, years and years before Chris showed up to try to lure Ganats to the island with the hopes of establishing a new Ganat colony. Where Ganats can increase their numbers and grow and have another safe haven in a very unpredictable and changing world. The only problem is, Ganats prefer to nest where other Ganats are already nesting. So how do you get Ganats to come to a place that has no Ganats? Well, one way is to make some and then you wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. The months, the years ticked by. The fake Ganats would fade. Volunteers would repaint them. Paint the rocks around them white to look like poop. Reposition the speakers, but still-- And I guess nearly 20 years. This project was a failure. Totally unsuccessful. No Ganats. No, no, I am. But then, one day, a beautiful, snowy white male Ganat with golden head and black-tipped wings flew in, hovered over the decoys and he landed, checked the place out. Decided that the colony was a good place. And then he moved in. Oh. This was huge. Absolutely huge, because he's a lot more convincing than the concrete replicas. This bird was momentum. This is the pioneer. This is the Johnny Appleseed of Ganats. Exactly. He was now going to be the lure for other Ganats to come. And he was given the name Nigel. Nigel know mates. Oh. Because soon, it became apparent that this bird-- Oh, gosh. --was maybe a little different. I mean, it somehow-- It seemed as though Nigel was taking a shine to one particular ikoi. Was she in any way different than the others? Was she, like, was there something about her that was-- No. No, not to me. Not to me. Yeah. No. She was one of the sitting Ganats. Wings tucked by her sides, head raised, painted eyes gazing out over the ocean. I'm just wondering why he chose her. My gosh. Yeah, that's a mystery for the ages. Ganats are sort of famous for their bonding rituals. Courtship is really important. They'll do these almost dances. Calling to one another, stretching their necks out high, opening their wings. Raising their beaks up slowly towards the sky before quickly clacking them together. All part of just reaffirming the bond and being a partnership. And Nigel began to do a sort of one-sided version of this with the ikoi. He would do the whole big display thing of putting up his wings and gently resting his head on top of her head and doing a nice big call. He even built her a nest. It's just a low platform of sticks and muds and a tufts of grass. And when he wasn't at sea, that's where he would be, by her side. Because the thing is Ganats are socially monogamous, and often made for life, as time passed. The only Ganat finds love with concrete statues. The local paper in Wellington, it work your own stories from time to time on him. He's a lovely bird, but he's a bit confused. More and more people begin to hear about Nigel and his choice of mate and it touched some sort of nerve with people. He's really taken with this idea of a lonely bird. He's obviously quite desperate. Finding a mate who doesn't really exist. Tempting to impress what he appears to believe is a real female bird. And the sort of the sadness and the tragic comedy of that situation. And Nigel had been living there alone for almost a year. 18th of August 2016, the morning was great, without a breath of wind. - That time that Chris showed up. - Nigel was in his usual spot. - To find that he shared the island with this strange neighbor. - Sort of tempted to spin a tail of seeing him as competition and as to just dividing the island between us. And, you know, did the silence of me being there for one misentropic blue and a Nigel? (laughing) You stick to your side of the island along my-- - Yeah. - It's funny because like I'm trying hard not to anthropomorphize him, but if I just indulge for a second and imagine from Nigel's perspective watching this bizarre, like tall man slouching around the island. It's just a loan and he's like, I'm so worried about that Chris guy. He's just seems so lonely. (laughing) - Yeah. - Yeah. - He doesn't seem to miss-- - Yeah, can you see-- - Can you see me in the statue? - Yeah, yeah, exactly. - That's right. - But what Chris was really thinking about when it came to Nigel was, what can I do? - It's wonderful as it is to have one ganet. You don't want just one ganet. You want a bunch. And one bird, no matter how hard it tries, cannot make more birds with a statue. - So yeah, that is the difficulty. - And so he would occasionally head over to the colony, clean the decoys, make sure the speakers were working, watch Nigel, watch the empty skies above him, and that's how things were. Until-- - 25th of December. - A Christmas miracle. - Just before Christmas, it would just be before Christmas, yeah. - Tell me. - Oh, it's absolutely amazing. - Okay, I'm gonna imagine you're walking, you're doing a daily walk. You walk towards the Gannett colony. And you hear sounds. Is this any-- you have no idea. You don't remember? (laughing) - I remember being greatly elated. - The great surprise came yesterday on my visit to the Gannett colony. When I saw no less than four actual Gannets in place. - Oh my God. - Three more real-life Gannets had finally come. - On Christmas? Yes! - This is unprecedented and coming only 10 days after our repositioning the speaker system, it fills me with pride. - This group were just doing exactly what Nigel had done several years before. They'd been lowered in, they'd landed, they were interested, displaying to each other, they were checking out the replicas. - And-- - And-- - This is January 2018. Again, I saw four Gannets at the colony. - They seemed to sort of settle in. - Gosh. - And finally Nigel the live bird was a powerful enough lure to bring in these other live birds. Like, he did his job. - Yeah. - Yeah. - At least that's how everyone thought this was gonna go. - What actually happened after the break? - After the break, you mother flippers. You could say that. - Oh, I love that. What actually happened after the break, you mother flippers. - That's good. That's really good. - I like it. - Lutth, radio lab, back from break with Annie, and Chris, and Nigel. - Yeah, so Nigel the Gannet lived alone with his concrete decoy lover for a couple years, and then finally three more live Gannets come. And now Nigel can be with his own kind. - Now he can have real friends. - Maybe a real mate. - Yeah. Except. - No. - No. - Love concrete is all one love bird's tale. - The local paper published a picture of the colony at this time. And you can see in the foreground, there are the three new live Gannets mingling among the decoys. And in the background, way, way on the other side of the colony, there's Nigel. And this was apparently the common arrangement, because these new Gannets. - They really, really didn't go anywhere near Nigel. And he had no interest whatsoever in them. This group of Gannets and Nigel completely ignored one another. - Now the newspapers headline red. - Gannet with a heart of stone. He's got live company, but he prefers a concrete decoy. - People were sort of bemused, a little disappointed maybe, but bird courtship is intricate. - Chris knew that these were early days. - Just because these are the birds turned up, it's not going to be immediate chemistry, as you know, to find life long made is the deliberate strategy to be cautious and to make sure it's the right one. - These things take time. - Yeah, there's always hope. - But now. - This just feels like the wrong ending to this story. - Because those birds. - Unfortunately, they didn't stay. - Ultimately flew away and didn't come back. - No. - And during Chris's tenure on the island, no other Gannets would come. - It could just be where we as humans have chosen to put this potential Gannet colony doesn't suit Gannets. Maybe the fishing grounds are too far. Maybe the aspect is wrong. Could just be a bunch of things. - The idea of decoy, like these decoy colonies, is this a thing that they do with other birds than it's successful in other parts of the world or? - It's a tried and tested means. And it's led to some amazing, amazing conservation successes, bringing birds back to places they should be. And, you know, each of those projects that has succeeded has had a lonely first bird, has had an agile, and they've made that leap. - But in this case, actually. - There's your first of January 2018. - Only a few weeks after those Gannets arrived. - The Wright sunny hot day. - This is repeated to be the hottest month in New Zealand's history. - It was a scorcher. - And the days were baking. - And I can't remember the reason I went up to the colony, probably just to do some work on the sounds because, so there's a slight crest of a hill before you look then down on the sweep of this more promentary where the Gannet colony is. And, I could see right away, something wasn't right. - Nigel was there in his nest. But his position wasn't right. And I walked down, and Nigel was just prone with his wings spread out, and he said to one side, - Up in the Gannet colony, I found Nigel dead on his nest. He had no visible injury. - Nigel, the lonely Gannet found dead beside his concrete love. - 30 February 2018. - Nigel's death was published in the Dominion post. - The world's loneliest seabird. - The several days, the phone has not stopped for interviews. - The futility of his life and bleak melancholy of his end have attracted worldwide attention. - Sick of February 2018. - Nigel spent his whole life loving, never getting anything in return. - The world's media seemed to like the story of a love sick bird dying of heartbreak and the stony indifference of his concrete mate. - Ah, this story is just such a bummer. - Yeah, I mean, I think that's one way to look at it. - Nigel, the lonely Gannet, may never have found real love. - And that's the way that most people looked at it. - But are we not all Nigel? - A lot of people saw themselves in Nigel. - Nigel stands for all of us who are incapable of facing reality. - Their own heartbreak, their own isolation. - He died as he lived, confused, and alone. - But of course, as us, piecing ourselves into Nigel's story, which, if you're a conservationist, like Chris, it's not really something you do. But on the other hand. - I definitely felt a kinship in the way that I think when you work with wild animals, you realize that they are as individual as we are. They all have individual characteristics and personalities, no two are the same and when are different. - Did you ever think, is there something wrong with Nigel? - Well, I think he must have been an unusual bird in a way in that he was one of those, I imagine, he would have been one of those birds who had some more of the instinct to go and try something new to find a room. - Very new. - Yeah, just like in human population, most of us, what's Nicholas' room. I think he was part of that group with a bit more wanderlust. Get it populations rely on birds like Nigel, birds that are a little bit different, birds that are willing to try something new. Otherwise, there never would be any new colonies and the species would be stuck on those same overcrowded cliffs forever. And we can't know, of course we can't know, we'll never know. But maybe a bird who's not afraid to leave his community to strike out on his own, maybe that kind of bird who's not gonna want the thing that we think it should want. - Yeah, like we clearly know what Chris was thinking and wanted to happen here. But like we really don't know what Nigel wanted. (upbeat music) ♪ They've all been making plans for Nigel ♪ ♪ And by they I mean the ornithologists ♪ ♪ They live in houses made of bricks and glass ♪ ♪ Nigel lives alone at the edge of a cliff ♪ ♪ The bird banners, the widers and doors ♪ ♪ With his biography ♪ ♪ They notice habits and recording swaps ♪ ♪ On tip to phones ♪ ♪ Meanwhile, Nigel wonders why don't they ♪ ♪ Ever ask me, I could tell them there's a difference ♪ ♪ Between being lonely and being alone ♪ (upbeat music) - Did you ever feel lonely? - Um, not really, I don't really feel, I don't, that's not something I feel too much. - Alone on my nice sank into a malaise brought on perhaps by days of grim grey rain winter darkness barely cheered by the struggling fire kindled from damp wood. - I mean, I do occasionally, maybe a little bit. ♪ Nigel's commitment to bachelorhood ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Called to the concrete colony by a cassette ♪ ♪ Nigel noticed the other boots ♪ ♪ Didn't fly flat around ♪ ♪ He remembered an old French peacock ♪ ♪ It told him, "Hell is overburse, thought well." ♪ This is just the kind of place I'd like to settle down ♪ (upbeat music) - Is there still sounds being broadcast out? - Yes, yes. - And is his mate the one that he chose still there? - Yes, yes, definitely. - Really? - For sure. - I don't know, for me, I just can't stop thinking about that decoy bird, Nigel's partner, her faded eyes. Right this moment, staring out to sea. ♪ The dumb scientist ♪ ♪ Himself he was no bird brain ♪ ♪ And his heart was huge ♪ ♪ So he chose the concrete mate ♪ ♪ And he built her a nest ♪ ♪ He figured it was what they wanted him to do ♪ ♪ Nigel did most of the talking ♪ ♪ But he was used to that ♪ ♪ Usually they just sat there and stared out to sea ♪ ♪ When he died, home, home, Nigel's time ♪ ♪ He tuned stones at the top ♪ ♪ He realized Nigel began it ♪ ♪ A love that never longed ♪ - Thank you Annie, and thank you as well to the Burning Hell, the band that let us play their song about Nigel, Nigel the Gannett, is the name of the song. Check them out, you can find more about them, and even how you can see them live, at theburninghell.com. This episode was reported and produced by Annie McEwen, edited by Alex Neeson, facts checked by Diane Kelly with voice acting by Maya Apple B. Melamed, and David Gable. Special thanks to Melody Thomas and Kirsten Johnstone from the New Zealand Narrative Podcast Company, PopSoc Media. Thanks also to Matthias Corn and Ariel Sharat from the Burning Hell and Steven Lamke at You've Changed Records. For updates on the Epic Conservation Project, that is Man of Island, visit Friends of Man of Island at Man of Island.org.nz. I especially recommend that, if you are a Gannett, real estate agent, there's really a lot of vacancy there. Primo properties that are just waiting to be Gannettized. It's funny, you just heard the song, but actually many, many people wrote songs and poems about Nigel, including one piece of music that debuted at the Sydney Opera House, no kidding. Find a link to this, as well as to some other works of art inspired by Nigel on our website, radiolab.org. And just before we go, if you haven't gotten enough animal stories for today, I wanted to let you know that the terrestrial's team just dropped a scrappy little episode about the scrappy little raccoon, Timothy, who if you don't already know from your social media feed, is the Seattle raccoon that has been going viral this summer. The episode includes an ecologist who has closely studied Timothy, a disability advocate who tries to make sense of our love for Timothy. And if that's not enough, the episode is also infused with lots of '90s Seattle Grunge nostalgia, 'cause of course it is, given the terrestrial's soundscape. Yeah, anyway, just check it out. You might get a kick out of it. Search for the Timothy over on the terrestrial's podcast. Yeah, that's it for us. Thank you, thank you, and catch you right back here next week. Hi, I'm Jonkel, and I'm from Brooklyn, and here are the staff credits. Radio Lab is hosted by Lulu Miller and Latifnasa. Soren Wheeler is our executive editor. Sarah Sandbach is our executive director. Our managing editor is Pat Walters. Dylan Keith is our director of sound design. Our staff includes Jeremy Bloom, W. Harry Fortuna, David Gabel, Maria Paz Gutierrez, Sindu Nyanem San Bandan, Matt Kielty, Mona Madgalka, Annie McEwen, Alex Neeson, Sarah Kari, Natalia Ramirez, Joanna Strogaetz, and Neesavizza, Ariant Wack, Molly Webster, and Jessica Young, with help from Gabi Santos, and Maya Appelbee Malamad. Our fact checkers are Nora Belglidia, Hillary Elkins, Rachel Gross, Diane Kelly, Emily Krieger, Natalie Middleton, and Sophie Samae. Hi, I'm Aubrey, calling from Salt Lake City, Utah. Leadership Support for Radio Lab Science Programming is provided by the Simon Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational Support for Radio Lab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.