The Nonsuch Expeditions CahowCam has now ended its 5th season broadcasting live from the underground Cahow nesting burrows on Nonsuch Island. This year its new partnership with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology resulted in 600,000 views for a total of 8.5 million minutes of video being viewed by scientists, students and followers from around the world.
Jeremy Madeiros, Senior Terrestrial Conservation Officer and Cahow Recovery Program Manager: "The Cahow Recovery Program represents a long-term commitment by the Bermuda Government towards the conservation and recovery of the island's National Bird. it represents one of the most successful programs for the recovery of a critically endangered species, and has endeavored to make use of new technology and management techniques whenever possible. Public outreach and education is one of the main objectives of the recovery program, and the CahowCam project and partnership with the Nonsuch Expeditions has contributed greatly to the achievement of this objective. In addition to bringing the story of the Cahow's survival and recovery to an international audience, it has enabled previously unknown aspects of the breeding biology and behavior of the species to be observed."
Charles Eldermire, Bird Cams Project Leader, Cornell Lab of Ornithology: "This season working with Nonsuch Expeditions to showcase the Cahow to a broader audience was a great success, reaching hundreds of thousands of viewers and raising awareness about the ongoing need for investment in the cahow's future. The foundation we laid through our partnership this year will allow us to continue improving the quality of the online experience in future years, and to further highlight the efforts of the Bermuda Department of Environment and Natural Resources."
Jean-Pierre Rouja, CahowCam designer and Nonsuch Expeditions Team Leader: "This project is a perfect example of how we aim to combine technology and media to assist and participate in conservation, research and educational outreach. What started out as a media-driven educational outreach project has now evolved into an extremely effective conservation tool, contributing greatly to the protection and recovery of the species."
There have been many examples over the past few seasons where the 24/7 live view of the up until now unknown nesting behaviors of one of the rarest seabirds on the planet is allowing the Team to re-write what is known about their behaviors and how they interact with each other as a colony.
The CahowCam stream has also allowed the Team to effectively crowdsource the monitoring of the 24/7 feed enabling viewers from around the world to watch, log and capture significant events that would have otherwise been missed.