Farewell Yellow NP

Long-term studies are the hallmark of CEH’s work on population ecology. A question we are often asked is whether we get to know our study species as individuals. The answer is usually "no", but occasionally special characters who contribute to a range of projects emerge. One such individual was a male European shag who for 17 years was an integral part of the Coastal Seas Ecology group's long-term seabird studies on the Isle of May. We wish to express our gratitude to Yellow NP for the enormous contribution he made to our understanding of population ecology and foraging dynamics.

As a colour-marked individual, he contributed to estimates of adult survival. We recorded his breeding success annually, and he produced no fewer than 16 chicks in the last eight years of his life, an impressive total. He took part in work on the costs of incubation, and was blood sampled for haematology. We employed him regularly as a carrier of electronic devices recording foraging location and behaviour, including VHF radios, temperature-depth loggers and state-of-the-art GPS loggers. Yellow NP survived the population crash of shags in 1993-1994, but sadly succumbed to the next one, that took place in early 2005. We thank him for his enormous contribution to CEH science.