Most vulture species are highly threatened, and their populations are declining. Researchers have been focusing more on vultures in recent years, and certain topics, such as their movements, are becoming well studied. However, other topics, such as how diseases affect vultures, and behavioural studies on vultures, have not been as popular. These areas need more attention because understanding all aspects of a species’ behaviour can help inform conservation efforts.
Studies on an animal’s behaviour can be enhanced using an ‘ethogram’. An ethogram clearly defines, describes, and classifies distinct behaviours commonly exhibited by a species. Researchers use ethograms as templates to record and understand the species’ behaviour. Importantly, ethograms can help to standardise data collection across different studies, which increases objectivity, and allows comparisons of results from different researcher teams.
Researchers from the Endangered Wildlife Trust and the University of KwaZulu-Natal recently produced the first ethogram describing the nesting and breeding behaviours of the Critically Endangered Hooded Vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus). They gleaned information from 14 Hooded Vulture nests in South Africa’s Lowveld region, from direct observations and over 400,000 camera photographs. The team described 28 behaviours exhibited by Hooded Vultures at their nests, and they grouped these behaviours into five categories: ‘Body Care’, ‘Movement’, ‘Nesting’, ‘Resting’ and ‘Social’. In their ethogram, the researchers also provided photographic records of each behaviour for researchers to use as references. Many of the behaviours exhibited by Hooded Vultures may be common to other tree-nesting vulture species, so this ethogram should be helpful for other research teams studying the breeding of other vulture species globally. It will also be used for further investigating the behaviour of Hooded Vultures in South Africa, and the next step is to look at activity budgets.
The research team comprised the EWT’s Dr Lindy Thompson (the camera trap photos we used were collected during Lindy’s postdoctoral studies on Hooded Vultures), Prof. Colleen Downs (who supervised Lindy’s postdoc from the University of KwaZulu-Natal), and Fiona Fern, who is soon to start her PhD on raptor health with the EWT’s Birds of Prey Programme.
The study was funded by the Rufford Small Grants Foundation, GreenMatter, and the National Research Foundation (ZA).
The study was titled ‘An ethogram for the nesting and breeding behaviour of the Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes monachus’, and you can access it here: https://doi.org/10.2989/00306525.2022.2072965
Spotted on the Road Call to Action – How Can You Help?
Drive slowly, especially at night
Be on the lookout for animals on the roads
Don’t swerve, but avoid collisions by reducing speed
Help a toad cross a road (in the same direction in which it is travelling)
Be a citizen scientist and submit information!
Contribute to leopard research by submitting photos of leopard sightings, signs like spoor or droppings, and threats to leopards to the CLT Western Cape leopard database: app.capeleopard.org.za
As we move deeper into winter, the Western Leopard Toad breeding season is in full swing. This is an amazing time in the Overberg to see and hear this Endangered toad. Please share your WLT sightings with the EWT: inaturalist.org/projects/leopard-toads-of-the-overberg
Wetlands are important ecosystems that supply essential ecological goods and services (EGS) for wildlife and people. They supply clean water and fertile soil for plants, filter water from upstream, regulate water flow to prevent flooding, store water to ease drought periods, and reduce the effects of climate change, improving ecological and social resilience. Protection and conservation of wetlands are essential to support communities through environmental disasters caused by climate change.
Wetland health and ecological goods and service quality assessments are valuable in determining the ecological state of wetlands to inform conservation management actions. The Endangered Wildlife Trust’s (EWT) Threatened Amphibian Programme (TAP) aims to show the link between amphibian diversity (i.e. healthy amphibian populations) and wetland habitat health. In other words, if wetlands are in a poor ecological state, amphibian diversity decreases and vice versa. Indirectly, better species and ecological health also support healthy human populations. To this end, we started long-term monitoring protocols in 2016 to determine habitat health and identify amphibian species diversity at four project sites in eThekwini Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal, where the threatened Pickersgill’s Reed Frog (Hyperolius pickersgilli) occurs.
These sites included Adams Mission, Mt Moreland’s Froggy Pond, Widenham, and Isipingo. Wetland health scores, EGS scores, and amphibian diversity from each site were compared to determine whether amphibian species richness increases or decreases under different habitat conditions.
Figure 1: Diagram illustrating the correlation between amphibian species diversity and wetland health.
The data showed a significant positive relationship between the amphibian species diversity and Wetland Health assessment scores between the four sites (P-Value 0.04077) (Social Statistics, 2022), as illustrated in Figure 1.
Species composition for each site showed that some species were found across all sites (Figure 2). These included Hyperolius tuberlinguis, Hyperolius marmoratus, Leptopelis natalensis (Figure 3), and Hyperolius pickersgilli was also present at all four sites, but Hyperolius pickersgilli was one of the site selection criteria and as such, expected to be present at all the sites.
Figure 2: Species present according to the number of sites, i.e. Hyperolius tuberilenguis occurs in all four sites while Natalobatractus bonebergi, only occurs in one site.
The study’s results indicate a statistically significant positive relationship between these two variables, demonstrating that amphibian species diversity will decrease as wetland health decreases and vice versa. Reinforcing the value of amphibian species diversity in indicating wetland health. Amphibians may be an effective monitoring tool for managing wetlands within the eThekwini Municipality. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that improving habitat health through restoration or rehabilitation could positively impact amphibian species diversity.
Danielle Du Toit, EWT’s Birds of Prey Programme Karoo Vulture Safe Zone and Sustainable Land Management Coordinator, danielled@ewt.org.za
Battle of the Bullets was an event conceptualised during a brainstorming session in Langebaan in early 2022. The event aimed to promote a lead-free environment within the Karoo Vulture Safe Zone. Lead poisoning occurs in many ways, but in this case, the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Birds of Prey Programme focused on poisoning from the ingestion of lead ammunition by vultures and other animals scavenging on carcasses and entrails. Vultures that ingest lead fragments from ammunition have been found to have higher levels of lead in their blood, which affects their health and can kill them. For more about how lead ammunition affects vultures, read this article.
Similarly, people who eat a lot of game meat are also at risk of lead poisoning when venison is hunted using lead ammunition. We saw Battle of the Bullets as an opportunity to engage with industry stakeholders and people on the ground who use ammunition to raise awareness of the impact of lead bullets and the available lead-free alternatives. Furthermore, we wanted to practically demonstrate how these alternatives can do the job just as well as lead bullets.
To unpack the impact of lead ammunition on the environment and vultures, we started the event with some presentations on the topic. Lizanne Nel, Conservation Manager of the SA Hunters and Game Conservation Organization, opened with a talk on the conservation impacts associated with lead ammunition and how their members can help by reducing its use.
Presentations on the impact of lead ammunition on vultures
The EWT’s Danielle du Toit, the EWT’s Karoo Vulture Safe Zone and Sustainable Land Management Coordinator, spoke about the importance of reducing the presence of lead bullets in the environment to create a vulture safe zone and benefit nature as a whole. Linda van den Heever of BirdLife South Africa dove deeper and enthralled the attendees with the science and research into lead poisoning in vultures across South Africa. Her talk was followed by an in-depth talk by Kobus du Plessis of Impala Bullets on the ballistic science behind lead- and lead-free ammunition.
Kobus du Plessis from Impala Bullets talking about ballistic science
After the presentations and a hearty lunch, we asked the bullet manufacturers to demonstrate their lead-free ammunition to show its suitability as an alternative to lead bullets. To do so, Chris Strydom of Balistix Bullets, Wessel Landman of GS Customs, and Kobus du Plessis from Impala Bullets all took turns shooting from 100 m into dummy targets made from gelatin. Gelatin targets slow and trap the energy dispersion of the bullet upon impact and along its trajectory. They are a useful educational tool to show how a bullet performs in practice. Ammunition, like many other things, is designed and manufactured according to its purpose. In a hunting bullet, one needs specific ballistic characteristics for the area in which the bullet is used and for the prey being hunted. A target shooting bullet must perform well through various challenges, including long-distance, gong shooting, and paper targets. Those present were shown how lead-free ammunition (also known as monolithic ammunition) is similarly designed, crafted, and tested for its end purpose in mind and witnessed how it performs in different scenarios.
After the demonstrations, attendees were invited to shoot at several other dummy targets themselves and join in for a few rounds of clay target shooting hosted by the Graaff-Reinet Gun Club. The afternoon was warm and calm, and those who didn’t take part in shooting sat and chatted about one thing: ammunition and what to do about it. Evening rolled around, but the day wasn’t over. Lucky draw prizes were kindly donated by Karoo Guns (two R250 gift vouchers and a hat), Boomsticks (R500 gift voucher), Nommerpas (R1,000 gift voucher), and Balistix Bullets (a bullet puller for all calibres, valued at R500). The fire was lit as the lucky draw happened, and meat began to sizzle on the grill.
The day ended with a delicious meal of classic Karoo Lamb chops, other meat, and salads, prepared to perfection by Andre and Annette Nagel and thoroughly enjoyed by all. The event achieved its objective of bringing together industry professionals and their clients, conservation officials, landowners, and local shooting enthusiasts, for an open and productive conversation about lead and lead-free ammunition and how to work together to create a lead-free environment to benefit animal and human health. Those who attended were given a well-rounded introduction to the risks to vultures and people of using lead ammunition and witnessed first-hand how lead-free ammunition performs in practice. Feedback from attendees was positive, and a shift in mindset was visible. All parties agreed that it’s time we start thinking about lead-free ammunition as a natural next step rather than an alternative.
A hearty thanks and congratulations to everyone who was part of the day. We hope to see you all again soon and continue this important conversation!
A boost to law enforcement against poaching rekindles hope in the Kafue Flats
Kelvin Steven Floyd, International Crane Foundation And Endangered Wildlife Trust Partnership, African Crane Conservation Program, Restoration Ecologist, Kafue Flats Restoration Partnership (KFRP), floyds@ewt.org.za
The Kafue Flats in southern Zambia is a wetland of international importance. It is a valuable ecosystem facing extreme pressure. Excessive poaching in and around the Kafue Flats wetlands is driving massive wildlife declines, particularly of large herbivores. One of these, the endemic Kafue Lechwe (Kobus leche kafuensis), was once widespread on the flats, with more than 80,000 individuals recorded during the 1980s. But aerial surveys recorded only 28,000 Kafue Lechwe in 2015 and less than 23,000 in 2018.
Our surveys also show declines in other large mammal populations, including Plains Zebra, African Buffalo, Oribi, and Blue Wildebeest. The latter is actually now locally extinct. But poaching on the Kafue Flats is not restricted to large herbivores. Livestock herders on the flats also poach Endangered cranes and other waterbirds. The poachers hunt the adult birds illegally and collect the eggs for food. But park management faces a major challenge with limited capacity available for wildlife protection.
What’s the problem?
Despite being a wetland of local and international importance, and the most important wetland for Wattled Cranes and Kafue Lechwe in Africa, the number of wildlife police officers (WPOs) available is half what is required to protect the 6,500 km2Â Kafue Flats against poaching. The area includes the Lochinvar, Blue Lagoon National Park, and the surrounding buffer zone (the Kafue Flats Game Management Area). Low patrol efforts, low coverage, and ineffective management leave this critical wetland vulnerable to degradation and plunder.
Stepping in to help combat poaching and restore the Kafue Flats
The International Crane Foundation and Endangered Wildlife Trust Partnership (ICF/EWT) is addressing these issues to conserve wildlife populations. To do this, we have committed to five pillars of action. These include law enforcement, community engagement, ecological management, research and monitoring, and advocacy/education. Furthermore, we have entered a 20-year co-management agreement with the Zambian Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW). In 2017, we started a community habitat restoration project to control the alien invasive plant, Mimosa pigra. The plant had taken over and degraded critical wildlife habitat. By 2020, we had cleared and restored about 2,350 ha of wetlands for wildlife.
Why law enforcement?
Strengthening law enforcement to stop poaching on the Kafue Flats is a top priority. And so we must recruit and deploy fully equipped, trained, and motivated personnel for targeted anti-poaching patrols. By supplementing government law enforcement capacity in this way, we will reduce the impact of poaching and reverse the decline of wildlife populations.
We must support law enforcement as well as community livelihoods if we are to save the Lechwe Antelope, buffalo, zebra, hippo, and others from poaching on the Kafue Flats. While this might seem off-mission for a crane conservation organisation, cranes and other threatened species depend on the Kafue Flats for grazing. Unfortunately, without big mammals like the Lechwe, the government won’t support the conservation of the Flats. They will consider them better used for growing crops or grazing cattle. This would be catastrophic for the Flats’ crane populations.
Wildlife heroes in the making
In February 2022, we worked with Community Resource Boards from Lochinvar and Blue Lagoon National Parks to train 55 community scouts. The scouts underwent three months of intense training at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife’s Chunga Training School in the Kafue National Park. On 7 June 2022, the scouts proudly graduated and will be deployed alongside the DNPW Wildlife Police Officers to combat poaching on the Kafue Flats. To complement their training and ensure the effectiveness of patrols, we are giving the scouts access to technology such as the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART), CYBERTRACKER, and Earth Ranger.
The ICF President and CEO, Rich Beilfuss, represented the partnership and delivered the commencement address to the scouts. The ICF/EWT’s Kim Boardman, Mwape Sichilongo, Kerryn Morrison, Lourens Leeuwner, and other employees attended the colourful graduation ceremony. Two traditional leaders also graced the proceedings to show community support of the project.
The graduating community scouts (above). ICF President and CEO Rich Beilfuss delivering the commencement address (Below right).
The deployment of these scouts is a critical component of our holistic conservation approach to protecting critical habitat for the Endangered Wattled Crane and restoring vital grazing grounds and wildlife habitat while generating local employment and income through community involvement in the scouts programme and alien invasive plant control. The project will increase government capacity to manage and protect Zambian floodplains and advance global understanding of large-scale mimosa control methods and their measurable impact on biodiversity and livelihoods.
Thabo Hlatshwayo, Wildlife and Transport Programme Intern, thaboh@ewt.org.za
The N3 Toll Route (N3) passes through landscapes of grasslands, freshwater ecosystems and wetlands, which attract animals, bringing them close to the road. Land used for cultivating maise and other grain crops closer to the highway also increases bird and small mammal activity in the area, resulting in increased wildlife-vehicle collisions (i.e., roadkill). The N3 Toll Route comprises road features such as road signage, guideposts, safety barriers, boundary fence, and raised road markers. These objects are installed on the road to control traffic and improve road safety. However, numerous owl species use these road structures during the evenings to perch on while hunting for prey, such as rodents and squirrels attracted to crops and food deposited by passing vehicles. Unfortunately, this increases the risk to the birds of being struck by vehicles.
Through the strategic partnership work undertaken by the EWT and the N3TC since 2014, robust data on the incidences of roadkill have been recorded. The existing EWT-N3TC database shows that owls are the most common bird killed by vehicles on specific sections of the highway. To respond to this, the EWT recommended the installation of owl perches within the hotspot areas but away from the road, creating safe perching spots from which owls and other birds of prey can hunt safely.
We installed camera traps on the EWT-N3TC owl perch to see if birds would use these perches. Our camera traps revealed increasing birds of prey activity on the perch. Barn Owls, Black-shouldered Kites, and some falcon species have used it as their feeding restaurant. Interestingly, other wading birds like the Black-Headed Heron and passerine bird species (Stonechats and Pied Starling) have also been observed enjoying a rest on the owl perch.
Camera traps such as this are invaluable for increasing our understanding of animals’ interactions with roads – particularly what attracts them to roads. In this case, it is clear that structures similar to these perches erected on roadsides are at least in some part used for resting and feeding purposes and that by providing alternatives, we might be able to reduce the time birds spend on or near roads. We expect to learn more from these camera traps and hope you’ll stay tuned to catch rare glimpses into the daily lives of our raptors.
