Video: Cahow Cam Project Soars In First Week

The “Cahow Cam Project” has soared since being officially launched on Earth Day [Apr. 22], attracting hundreds of viewers to its video posts on Bermuda’s critically endangered national bird.

A joint initiative between Ascendant Group Limited, the Ministry of Environment & Planning, LookBermuda/LookFilms and North Rock Communications Ltd., the long-planned project is online and available for all to get a close look inside the nests on Nonsuch Island Nature Reserve.

A new report uploaded last night [Apr. 28] features Terrestrial Conservation Officer Jeremy Madeiros explaining the growth cycle of a five-week-old Cahow chick.

The Cahow Cam project was conceived as a means of bringing the best of Nonsuch Island to the general public via the Internet. Cahow Cams overcome the difficulty of getting the public to Nonsuch Island and support conservation efforts to limit the number of people who visit the nature reserve.

LookBermuda’s Jean-Pierre Rouja developed the Cahow Cam project in consultation with Jeremy Madeiros and the department of Conservation Services, as a follow-up to their successful film on the Cahow Translocation Project which was released in March, 2011.

For the Cahow Cam project, LookBermuda has leveraged all of the latest technologies to produce and stream live HD footage of the nests and lives of the rare Cahow or Bermuda Petrel.

The Bermuda Petrel, commonly referred to as the Cahow, is Bermuda’s national bird. It is a pelagic seabird, which means it spends most of its life out on the open ocean. They feed on small squid, fish and shrimp, returning to land only to breed.

The Cahow was believed to be extinct for nearly 300 years until several were found in 1951. Since that time, dedicated conservationists have worked to bring this species back from the brink of extinction.

Week-old 2013 Cahow chick photographed on Nonsuch Island in March by Jeremy Madeiros  

The population is now up to 104 breeding pairs nesting in underground, rabbit-like burrows on a few of Bermuda’s most remote, uninhabitable islands.

Although the Cahow nesting population is increasing at the moment due to intensive management action and the control of threats, it is at this point still one of the rarest seabirds on the planet, listed as endangered on the international Red Data List.

Anyone who wants to see nesting Cahows can visit the LiveStream page here.

For the next several months, footage will be recorded and posted to the site. Later in 2013, a new installation of solar panels on Nonsuch Island, funded and installed by Ascendant Group, will power the cameras 24 hours a day, along with the required networking equipment so that live footage can be streamed via North Rock Communications. This same footage will also be able to seen on a new display which will be mounted at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo.

To accomplish this LookBermuda uses miniature , high-definition video cameras, that they customised to be infrared-sensitive and paired them with their custom built military-grade invisible infrared lights. North Rock is providing the latest wireless technologies to stream live video from the islands to the Web, when the solar power installation is complete.

#Animal #BermudaCahow #Birds #NonsuchIsland

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