Our work is divided into two main themes: understanding and conserving biodiversity. We try to ensure that the lessons learned from our studies reach the relevant management authorities and, wherever possible, work with them to implement conservation solutions. However, much of the time it feels as though we are merely slowing the inevitable – we have our fingers in the dyke, but no one is coming to patch the hole.
Occasionally, though, we are involved in a project that can result in a lasting gain for conservation. The Gough Island Restoration Programme is one such project. The story will be familiar to most readers of African Birdlife. House mice were introduced accidentally to the island by sealers in the 19th century. In addition to having major impacts on the island’s invertebrate fauna, the mice acquired a taste for seabird chicks – a startling finding by researchers sent to the island by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Fitz in the early 2000s. Since then we have worked closely with the RSPB to assess the feasibility of eradicating mice on Gough.
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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.
