Dehydration risk for desert birds.
The English word ‘desert’ comes from the Latin desertus, or aban-doned. This linguistic derivation may prove prophetic; new findings suggest that rapid climate change during the 21st century may render the hottest deserts uninhabitable for even the most hardy and arid-adapted birds.
Desert birds must routinely tolerate ambient temperatures far above their own body temperatures. Under these circumstances, the only way they can avoid lethal hyperthermia is by perching in the coolest sites they can find and dissipating heat via evaporation, which in most passerines occurs by panting. An observer foolish enough to go for a mid-afternoon stroll in the Kalahari when the mercury hits 43 degrees will quickly notice that activity has almost completely ceased and most birds are panting to keep cool in the deepest shade they can find.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May - June 2017-Ausgabe von African Birdlife.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May - June 2017-Ausgabe von African Birdlife.
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EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
footloose IN FYNBOS
The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
Living forwards
How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
water & WINGS
WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
