The mystery surrounding the paternity of a cahow chick on Nonsuch Island will be revealed at an event this evening.

The question of “Who’s the Daddy” will be finally answered at the Speciality Cinema and Grill at 7pm after being postponed for scheduling reasons at the end of 2025.

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

However, there is some doubt as to 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.

Jeremy Madeiros, the principle scientist, terrestrial conservation for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, will give the nesting season update while Jean-Pierre Rouja, the cofounder of BioQuest and founder of Nonsuch Expeditions, will play back video evidence.

Additionally, Carika Weldon, the founder and chief executive of CariGenetics, will use ground-breaking genetics to answer the biggest question on Nonsuch Island — “is Sampson the father of the chick that he is raising, or was it a neighbour from up the hill?”

Mr Rouja said: “The CahowCams caught his young new mate entertaining other males prior to his return for both last nesting season and again for this one, and the only way to get to find out for sure will be for local partner BioQuest to use genetics to conduct a DNA paternity test.”

Nonsuch Expeditions said: “Due to lack of synchronisation between Sampson the resident male and his new mate, over the past two breeding seasons she has returned to their underground burrow a few days earlier than him, and the CahowCam has revealed her engaging in ex-pair mating with other males, putting their chick’s paternity into question.

“For an otherwise thought-to-be monogamous species, how prevalent is this?

“Thankfully, BioQuest comes to the rescue and is conducting ground-breaking Cahow paternity tests as part of its ongoing genomic population study.”

Tickets are available via Speciality and more information is at www.nonsuchisland.com