Index of /depts/fitzpatrick/docs - Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African ...

conductors, where they are unlikely to cause problems. One ofthese platforms has already been used by a pair of MartialEagles, confirming this as a tenable management andmitigation option. An initial study of nest distributions suggeststhat large eagles in the Karoo are insensitive to many microandmacro-scale measures of habitat quality, but maysomehow benefit from the influences of game farming.Low-key, long-term demographic studies of raptorpopulations – Peregrines, Rock Kestrels, Black Sparrowhawks- on the Cape Peninsula have continued, with an emphasis oncolour-ringing adults and young in each population, andmonitoring the occupancy of territories and the performance ofindividuals in relation to habitat quality. As by-products of theseprojects, a study of genetic structure in southern AfricanPeregrine populations is underway, in collaboration with BettineJansen van Vuuren at Stellenbosch University, and a studycombining the results of some recent genetics work with acomprehensive set of morphometric and plumage data hasshown that southern Africa’s Rock Kestrel Falco tinnunculusrupicolus is almost certainly a distinct, regionally endemicspecies and not a subspecies of the Common Kestrel F.tinnunculus.Two entirely new projects were started during the reviewperiod. The first looks at Barn Owls as bio-control agents ofrodents in cereal croplands, and is based on farms in localwheat-growing areas where some landowners are usingcustom-built nest boxes to attract owls onto their properties.Evidently, the owls curb the populations and activities of gerbilsand other rodent pests. The study will examine exactly how,and how efficiently, the owls control rodent outbreaks, and limitcrop losses and the need for farmers to resort to expensive andenvironmentally harmful rodenticides. A second new study –the Goudini Fish Eagle Project - investigates pesticidecontamination in raptor populations along the upper and centralreaches of the Breede River, as a measure of the extent towhich environments in this heavily cultivated valley arepermeated and compromised by agrochemicals. The studyfocuses on the Fish Eagle and Black Sparrowhawk populationsin the valley, as representatives of piscivorous and bird-eatingconsumers respectively.Highlights• Integration of the Black Harrier Project into C.A.P.E., andsecuring three years of funding for the project from theCEPF.• Location and monitoring of over 80 large eagle nests onEskom transmission lines in the Karoo.• Use of morphometric and plumage data to confirm theRock Kestrel as a distinct species – Falco rupicolus?StudentsOdette Curtis (MSc); Land transformation and the conservationstatus of the Black Harrier: does habitat fragmentationinfluence the distribution and performance of breeding pairs?Leigh Potter (MSc Conservation Biology); Birds as bothacademic and agricultural tools: investigating the Barn Owlas a model of life history theory and an agent of bio-controlAdam Welz (BSc Hons); Raptors as indicators of agrochemicalcontamination of the Breede River Basin, South AfricaKath Potgieter (BSc Hons); Small mammal abundance anddiversity in pristine, modified and transformed habitats in theFynbos Biome, South Africa: implications for floralconservation?Electric Eagles – finding solutions to the problem of eagles on pylons.Photo: Andrew JenkinsLecturesMembers of the WCRRP team gave at least 10 talks tomembership-based societies during the review period.AcknowledgementsThe Cape Bird Club has provided generous financialsupport for the WCRRP over the last three years. The BlackHarrier Project is funded by the CEPF, the Electric EagleProject is conducted on contract to Eskom TSI Division, theGoudini Fish Eagle Project is funded by Goudini WineCellar, and raptor research on the Cape Peninsula issponsored by Peregrine Properties and MvelaphandaProperties. We would like to thanks Chris van Rooyen (ofthe Eskom/EWT Strategic Partnership) for facilitating theElectric Eagle Project so effectively, Nico Dippenaar ofGoudini Wine Cellar for his support of our work on theBreede River, and Ann Koeslag and Geoff Seekings of theCape Bird Club for their help with monitoring sparrowhawknests on the Cape Peninsula.20 Percy FitzPatrick Institute Annual Report: July 2002 - June 2003