The results of a paternity test for a cahow chick at the centre of a “who’s the daddy” scandal will be revealed at a presentation.

During the 2024 nesting season, a female cahow hatched and successfully raised her first chick with Sampson, a longtime resident of the burrow, who had lost his original mate two years earlier.

However, there is some doubt whether Sampson is the father.

The 24/7 livestreaming CahowCams in the female’s burrow caught her mating with another male for a few days before Sampson’s return.

When Sampson returned, he lived up to his name and evicted the interloper.

In the spring, the resulting chick, which survived a longtail attack that was also documented on camera, had its blood drawn by vets from Ettrick Animal Hospital to be sequenced by project partner BioQuest.

This was part of BioQuest’s ongoing genomic population study and in this case was a paternity test.

This season, during the passage of Hurricane Melissa on October 30, the new female entertained another male, having once again arrived earlier than Sampson until his return on November 4.

Sampson again evicted the interloper after a 30-minute fight, launching the “who’s the daddy” sequel.

The results for the chick will be revealed in a presentation at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, exploring the collaborative use of genomics for the conservation of Bermuda’s critically endangered species on December 9.

Jeremy Madeiros, the principal scientist for terrestrial conservation at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, will be in attendance as well as Carika Weldon, the founder and chief executive of CariGenetics, and Jean-Pierre Rouja, the cofounder of BioQuest and founder of Nonsuch Expeditions.

Mr Rouja said: “Generally, established cahow pairs are highly synchronised, often returning to their burrows within hours of each other despite having spent the summer months apart at sea.

“This would usually mitigate the risk of ex-pair mating activity as the resident male will be there to prevent this, and Sampson was highly synchronised with his previous mate, Suzie, which he paired with for 14 years, often arriving within hours of each other. This resulted in no observed fights as Sampson was always already there and there was a very high breeding success rate of 85 per cent for that pair.

“Suzie however failed to return in 2023 and is presumed to have died at sea, cause unknown. It can take a few years, however, for a new pair to ‘sync up’, and this breeding season in the CahowCam2 burrow, for the second year in a row, the new female has returned a few days prior to Sampson and engaged with other males.

“Last year, the resulting fight lasted a few minutes and Sampson’s primary goal seemed to be a prompt eviction, with the interloper being seen again a few days later in another nest further into the colony, seemingly uninjured apart from his pride, perhaps.

“This year, however, when Sampson returned on the night of November 4, the resulting fight lasted more than 30 minutes, and Jeremy and I, and followers who were also watching online, were concerned that we were witnessing a fatality as Sampson seemed intent on inflicting major pain, if not killing his opponent and not just evicting him.

“Ultimately, the loser made his way out of the burrow and, after catching his breath, flew away, but Jeremy remains concerned that he may have had fatal injuries.”

Sampson has now settled back in with his mate.

However, once again, should she produce a chick, its paternity will be in question.

For a species that is generally thought to be monogamous throughout their decades breeding, observers are now questioning the extent of this behaviour.

Nonsuch Expeditions has partnered with BioQuest, a local genomics non-governmental organisation, to conduct a species-wide genomic population study to shed light on these and other questions.

Nonsuch Expeditions said the study was groundbreaking for global conservation, especially for a non-captive species that had experienced a “near-extinction bottleneck”.

Mr Rouja added: “This also raises the concern that even for dominant males like Sampson, who is one of the largest and strongest in the colony, if he is not synchronised with his mate, he may not be able to pass on his genes.”

A video outlining the drama is available on YouTube.

• The Nonsuch Expeditions and BioQuest talk takes place on December 9 at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute from 7pm, revealing DNA test results. This will be followed by a discussion on the collaboration to leverage genomics for the conservation and management of Bermuda’s critically endangered species