Current News
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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.
Nectar-feeding birds and the plants that they feed from benefit each other and they are expected to be highly dependent on each other. Anthropogenic effects on one of these parties will thus likely affect the other party, or even whole communities. A study (http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1440-1703.12148) investigated the relationship between nectar-feeding birds in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) and one of their most wide-spread and common food sources: bird-pollinated Proteaceae species. At least 71 species from the genera Protea, Leucospermum and Mimetes depend, to varying degrees, on the Cape Sugarbird and three other sunbird species.
New research demonstrates for the first time that artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to train computers to recognise individual birds, a task humans are unable to do. The research is published in the British Ecological Society journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
PhD student Nick Pattinson is looking for a field volunteer to assist him with data collection for his research on the Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill in the Kuruman River Reserve near Van Zylsrus, Northern Cape.
A new study led by researchers at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, investigates the use of vulture supplementary feeding sites (SFS), also known as vulture restaurants, as a conservation tool in South Africa. Two papers from this study have been published this year.
A new study led by researchers at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology that investigated whether Kalahari tree skinks are able to eavesdrop and cue on sociable weavers to avoid predation, was recently published in the journal Behavioral Ecology.
On 19 June the first ever World Albatross Day will be celebrated online around the globe. The day honours these magnificent birds and highlights the ongoing conservation crisis they face.
A new study, led by scientists at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and published in the journal Ostrich, explores where best to establish a new population of bearded vulture. The study identifies five potential locations within the species’ historic South African range – in both the Eastern and Western Cape – and explores the potential benefits and threats present at each site. The study also found that any reintroduction would be far more likely to succeed if a captive breeding population is established first.
Wealth, Water and Wildlife – new study finds more biodiversity in richer neighbourhoods, especially in dry regions.
A unique global study has found that wealthier neighbourhoods in cities have more biodiversity in comparison to poorer ones - a pattern that scientists have called the ‘Luxury Effect’. However, this study found that this ‘Effect’ is far greater in the more arid regions of the world.