Current News
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Crows are notorious for robbing eggs and chicks from other birds nests, especially where crow numbers have been boosted by human activity. However, research led by UCT student Angela Ferguson, indicates one way to stop the marauding crows.
Newly published research by an all-women team from the University of Cape Town (UCT) shows how one of the most ancient groups of birds (from the time of the dinosaurs) was able to detect minute mechanical vibrations in the soil using their beaks referred to as remote-touch.
The 2020 MSc Conservation Biology class finally got back into the field together after learning remotely since mid-March when they went on a 5-day trip to the Grootbos Environmental Centre in the heart of a thriving conservancy.
Robin Colyn has just published a paper on his work using both camera traps and passive acoustic recorders to study the critically endangered White-winged Flufftail.
The Young Researcher Award is offered annually in recognition of outstanding scholarly work by young academics who have made significant independent contributions to research in their field.
Fitz postdoctoral fellow, Dr Chima Nwaogu's new paper titled 'Local timing of rainfall predicts the timing of moult within a single locality and the progress of moult among localities that vary in the onset of the wet season in a year-round breeding tropical songbird' has been published in the Journal of Ornithology.
There is a wealth of animal behaviour knowledge in Africa which needs to be shared. Unfortunately, funding obstacles and limited access to information make this challenging. To this end, a group of early career researchers and students from around Africa, including within the Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology have initiated the Animal Behaviour Community Africa.
The Hot Birds Project team have recently published two papers - both on the theme of sociality in the heat, one from Margaux Rat's PhD research on Sociable Weavers, and the other from Amanda Bourne's PhD research on the Southern Pied Babblers.
Kim Stevens, Vonica Perold and Roelf Daling have arrived on Gough Island to relieve Alexis Osborne, Chris Jones and Michelle Risi after their epic 2-year stint on the island.
The British Ecological Society’s (BES) Marsh Award for Climate Change Research has been awarded to the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Professor Wendy Foden, a world-leading researcher in climate change vulnerability assessments of threatened species
Two papers have recently been published on research done on Southern Pied Babblers by the Hot Birds Project team.
Rob Little published a collation and follow-up of research this week in the journal African Journal of Wildlife Research which shows that the reluctance of golf course managers to adopt effective solutions to control the nuisance impact of Egyptian Geese is not a failure of science but rather a failure of the process of effectively mitigating a wildlife management conflict. This can thus be regarded as a case where interactions between humans and wildlife lead to conflict between different stakeholders over appropriate management interventions with a lack of consensus resulting in effective relevant research outcomes being ignored.