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On Malgas Island, a flat landmass off South Africa’s Western Cape, Mukuzai Muyahamba scans the sky as thousands of Cape gannets circle overhead in a wheeling blur of white feathers, black tails, and yellow heads. But Muyahamba is waiting for a specific bird to return to its nest the one with a tiny GPS tag fitted to its leg. The tag was attached to record the gannet’s foraging patterns, and Muyahamba has a video camera trained on the bird’s nest to record its most captivating behavior: its dance.
All three species of gannets perform complex bill-fencing, preening, and head-bobbing rituals during mating, but also every time they return from a foraging trip at sea. Until recently, studies of these rituals, referred to collectively as a dance, have only considered their role in reproduction.