BEARDED VULTURE POPULATION AND HABITAT VIABILITY ...

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Population and Habitat Viability Assessment: Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) ________________________________________________ reporting rate of 13.5% within those grid-cells in which it was sighted (Brown 1997a). The highest reporting rates were in grid-cells along the eastern and southern escarpments of the Drakensberg and in the highest reaches of the Maloti Mountains (Brown 1997a). The reporting rate was slightly higher in winter months and this has been attributed to more birds using vulture restaurants and so being more visible to observers (Brown 1997a). There were 15 grid-cells in which the reporting rate was less than 2% and possibly the Bearded Vulture can be regarded as a vagrant in these grid-cells. Note that 92-15 = 77 which is within the range of 72 (breeding) and 79 (occurrence) predicted from data collected a decade earlier (Brown 1992). This probably indicates that the species range, as determined about a decade apart, using different methods, had not changed significantly. Figure 3: Distribution map taken from The Eskom Red Data Book of Birds (Barnes 2000). 23
Population and Habitat Viability Assessment: Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) ________________________________________________ The Bird Atlas of Natal (Cyrus and Robson 1980: 80), map below, shows the same distribution, within KwaZulu-Natal (i.e. 24 grid-cells which is 14% of the grid-cells in the Province) as does SABAP (Brown 1997a) but with the added dimension of seasonal occurrence: the grid-cells away from the escarpment have only vagrants visiting them. Figure 4: Bird atlas of Natal map (Cyrus and Robson 1980). The regional atlas for the Free State Province was based on data collect during a fouryear period, from January 1983 to December 1986 which preceded SABAP (Earlé and Grobler 1987: 74). There were only two grid-cells in which Bearded Vultures were regularly recorded, at the adjacent Golden Gate and QwaQwa National Parks. 24
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BEARDED VULTURE POPULATION AND HABITAT VIABILITY ...

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