National Geographic

A national park along South Africa’ssouthern coast protects key breedinggrounds for more than a dozen seabirdspecies. But dangers remain.On Bird Island in AlgoaBay, puddled waterfrom heavy rains makesa messy landing for aCape gannet. Climatechange models pre-dict more frequentand intense rainfall inthe region, and flood-ing can cause large-scale loss of eggs. Analtered climate canaffect other birds bymoving their fish preyfarther from theirbreeding grounds.``````NEXT PHOTOAfter hitting the waterat 60 miles an hour,plunge-diving Capegannets feast onhigh-calorie sardines,their preferred prey.This photograph cap-tures the first evidence(top right) of under-water kleptoparasitismamong Cape gannets:one bird caught heist-ing a fish from another.