Radiolab
Radiolab

Nigel and the Real Gannet

August 14, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

For years, a single human ranger named Chris Bell lived alone on Mana Island, a small speck off the coast of New Zealand. The island had been stripped by farming and invasive mice, then painstakingly restored as a conservation sanctuary. Chris’s job was to protect the fragile wildlife that had been reintroduced. But one of his regular chores involved a strange, long-running project: a colony of fake gannets.

The Department of Conservation had installed the concrete decoys in the mid-1990s, along with speakers broadcasting gannet calls, hoping to lure real gannets to nest on the island. Gannets are seabird royalty—snowy white, with black wingtips and yellow heads—and they prefer to nest where other gannets already are. So the logic was simple: build a fake colony, and eventually, a real bird might take the bait. For nearly twenty years, the project was a total failure. No gannet ever came.

Then one day, a real male gannet flew in, hovered over the decoys, and landed. He checked the place out, decided it was good, and moved in. He was named Nigel—Nigel No Mates, as the local press would later call him.

A one-sided courtship

Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.

Read Full Summary →

Free • No credit card required

Listen to Audio Summary Open in App

What you'll learn

  • 1 (01:32) **Story Setup: The Lonely Ranger** - Latif introduces a small story about a small life that touched people worldwide, and producer Annie McEwen brings in Chris Bell, the sole inhabitant of Mana Island, New Zealand.
  • 2 (04:59) **The Decoy Colony Project** - Chris's work included maintaining an unusual conservation project: a fake gannet colony made of concrete decoys and recorded bird calls.
  • 3 (07:39) **Nigel Arrives** - A real, beautiful male gannet finally lands at the decoy colony, becoming the first live bird to settle there.
  • 4 (09:08) **Nigel's One-Sided Love** - Nigel began a full courtship ritual with the statue, including displays, cooing, and nest-building, despite her being inanimate.
  • 5 (10:42) **A Year of Solitude** - Nigel lived alone with his concrete mate for almost a year while Chris watched, hoping for more birds to arrive.
  • 6 (12:06) **The Christmas Miracle** - Just before Christmas, three more real gannets finally arrive at the colony, seemingly fulfilling the project's goal.
  • 7 (15:57) **The Twist: Nigel Ignores the Newcomers** - After the break, the story takes a turn: Nigel completely ignored the three new live gannets.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

In 2016, Chris Bell, a ranger with New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, was the sole human inhabitant of a small island off the west coast of the country, called Mana Island. He was there to take care of the island’s fragile and recovering ecosystem, including a colony of Australasian Gannets at the top of a high cliff overlooking the sea. But there was one catch. All but one of these striking seabirds were fake, made of concrete and paint. 

This week on Radiolab, producer Annie McEwen tells us a love story about a rogue bird and what happens when the things we want for animals clash with what they seem to choose for themselves. 

Special thanks to Melody Thomas and Kirsten Johnstone from Popsock Media, the New Zealand-based podcast company. Thanks also to Mathias Kom and Ariel Sharratt from The Burning Hell and Steven Lambke at You’ve Changed Records. 

Visit Friends of Mana Island at https://manaisland.org.nz/ to learn more about conservation efforts on Mana Island.

EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Annie McEwen
Produced by - Annie McEwen
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Diane A. Kelly
and Edited by - Alex Neason

EPISODE CITATIONS:

Videos - 

There are many Nigel-inspired songs and poems, find links to a few of them below: