The white-breasted cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo lucidus) is a large, dark diving bird with a long neck, large head and an extremely sharp, hooked bill. Breast feathers, as the name implies, are white. The white-breasted cormorant is able to swallow fish larger than the normal diameter of its neck because a unique musculature of the neck allows it to stretch out. The throat, or gular pouch, is also used as a signaling device and as a means for cooling the body. By panting and fluttering the gular pouch, blood passing through the rich concentration of capillaries is rapidly cooled.
Lake Sibiya has 100km of untouched shoreline and at 70km2 is South Africa’s largest freshwater lake. The lake falls within the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, now a World Heritage Site, and the Ramsar Convention assures its international conservation status.