Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology DST/NRF CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN ANNUAL REPORT 2011 Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology DST/NRF CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE ANNUAL REPORT 2011 www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za Contents 3 Director’s Report 7 Staff, Students and Associates 9 DESCRIBING BIODIVERSITY 11 Systematics – the foundation of Evolutionary and Conservation Biology 17 UNDERSTANDING BIODIVERSITY: EVOLUTIONARY AND BEHAVIOURAL ECOLOGY 19 Co-evolutionary arms races in African brood-parasitic birds and their hosts 23 Sociable Weavers – searching to explain the evolution and maintenance of cooperation 27 Pied Babbler Research Project 31 CONSERVING BIODIVERSITY: SPECIES-LEVEL CONSERVATION 33 Blue Swallows on the brink 35 Southern Ground-Hornbill conservation 39 Bearded Vulture population dynamics and conservation 41 Conservation of Shoebills in the Bangweulu Wetlands, Zambia 43 The impacts of power line collisions on bustards and cranes 46 Life at the top of the food chain – raptor research projects 53 Changing fortunes of Africa’s shorebirds 58 Using seabirds and endemic landbirds as flagships to conserve oceanic islands 60 Seabird conservation 68 Endangered species research in Angola and the Gulf of Guinea 71 CONSERVING BIODIVERSITY: GLOBAL CHANGE 73 Ducks, dispersal and disease 78 Social-ecological resilience and landscape dynamics 81 Urban adaptors – the Cape Peninsula’s Black Sparrowhawks 83 Climate change and vulnerability of Fynbos birds 86 Hot Birds – climate change and desert birds 93 TEACHING, OUTREACH, RESEARCH SUPPORT AND RESEARCH OUTPUT 95 Conservation Biology Masters Programme 2011 98 Niven Library 103 Scientific publications 2011 112 Semi-popular publications 2011 113 Key co-sponsors FRONT COVER: Cory’s Shearwater Calonectris diomedea (Photo: Peter Ryan) HALF TITLE PAGE: African Scops Owl Otus senegalensis (Photo: Phil Hockey) OPPOSITE: Swallow-tailed Bee-eater Merops hirundineus (Photo: Samantha Hockey) 1 PERCY FITZPATRICK INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN ORNITHOLOGY ANNUAL REPORT 2011 2 Director’s Report The end of 2010 almost saw the end of our 50th Anniversary celebrations – a little more of that later. It also saw the upgrading of the Institute to a fully funded Centre of Excellence. A big thank you to the DST and NRF for that and an equally big thank you to all the Fitz staff and students whose hard work ensured that the potential upgrade became a reality. Even at relatively short notice, the upgrade allowed us to take on one more Post-doctoral Fellow and three more PhD students in 2011. Among the first new students to arrive at the start of 2011 were the Conservation Biology (CB) Masters students. These represent the 20th cohort of CB students, attesting to the national and international standing of this course, which has now graduated well in excess of 200 students. The course reached another milestone this year. After more than a decade of teaching on the course, Norman Myers, doyen of conservation biology and originator of the concept of Biodiversity Hotspots, lectured to the students for the last time. We are hugely grateful for all the knowledge, insight and enthusiasm that Norman has imparted to the CB class over the years. As the CB class was preparing to take up residence, Peter Ryan, th Director of the Fitz, Prof. Phil Hockey. Doug Loewenthal and I represented the Fitz at the 5 Biodiversity (Photo: Samantha Hockey) Conservation Academy held at Potberg Environmental Education Centre in De Hoop Nature Reserve from 17–21 January. This is a joint venture between two Centres of Excellence - the Centre for Invasion Biology at Stellenbosch University and the Fitz. The Academy targets previously disadvantaged undergraduates from universities across the country, as well as interns from SANBI. The aim of the Academy is to broaden the students’ knowledge of conservation in a South African context and to encourage them to pursue post-graduate studies in Conservation Biology. This year, all 14 student participants were black, and nine of them were women. Shortly after this, in February, Rob Little, some senior Fitz students and I attended the NRF/DST CoE Annual Day. This was an important event, attended by top-ranking representatives from the NRF and DST, including the NRF’s CEO and Minister Naledi Pandor. At this meeting, I gave an overview of how the activities of the Fitz and its Centre of Excellence contribute to the South African Government’s ‘Outcomes Approach’. This is the framework within which government departments work and assess their level of delivery, so constitutes the At the Centres of Excellence Annual Day, Phil discusses aspects of the Fitz CoE with reporting framework within which we too must operate. Beyond Minister Naledi Pandor (Science and the end of 2014, the fates of the original six National Centres of Technology), Dr Max Price (VC, UCT) and Excellence remain undecided, so it is vital that we present ourselves Dr Albert van Jaarsveld (CEO and Director, well at meetings such as this when the opportunity arises. NRF). (Photo: Lisa Nupen) April saw the final celebratory event of the Fitz’s 50th Anniversary calendar with a visit to the Institute by media and conservation icon, Sir David Attenborough. His visit had been on the cards for a while, following his life-long friendship with veteran Board member, Patrick Niven but this was only confirmed in early 2011. Unfortunately, 3 PERCY FITZPATRICK INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN ORNITHOLOGY DIRECTOR’S REPORT Patrick passed away in 2009, but Sir David nonetheless fulfilled his long- standing promise. I was the first to know that the visit had been confirmed, and happened to be teaching the CB class at the time. When I asked the CB students who, in the broad field of conservation, they would most like to meet in the world, Sir David came out a hands-down winner – lucky class of 2011! And what a visit it was! Sir David is not a young man, but his energy and enthusiasm are infectious and his memory prodigious. In addition to keeping several media appointments, he also gave a Vice-Chancellor’s Open Lecture at the Baxter Theatre on the topic of Darwin and Wallace and their independent efforts to unravel the secrets of natural selection. Tickets for this lecture were free, but had to be collected from the Baxter and could not be pre-booked. It seems that UCT had somewhat underestimated the response – several hours before the ticket booths opened (and in the dark), queues were stretching down Rondebosch Main Road. By the time the University’s Monday Paper arrived to document the event, all the tickets had gone, the ticket booths were closed and the crowds had dispersed! If we do this again, maybe we should book the ArtsCape Theatre! But those who had queued from the early hours were Sir David’s student question-and-answer session at Kirstenbosch was a huge treated to a consummate display of lecturing skill and both biological and success. (Photos: Cheryl-Samantha Owen) historical insight. The following day Sir David hosted a three-hour student question-and-answer session at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. This was again attended by a packed house of staff and students of the Fitz, UCT’s Zoology Department and SANBI. All-in-all it was an extraordinary way to finish the anniversary celebrations, and one that I think might be hard to top in the years to come. Sir David is owed a big thank you by the aspirant conservation scientists of Cape Town. But back to the nitty gritty of science and students. In June, a new penguin research vessel, “Winkle”, was launched at the Algoa Bay Yacht Club in Port Elizabeth. This boat is armed with some state-of-the-art equipment for tracking the movements of fish – whilst we know quite a lot about the movements of penguins it is becoming increasingly clear that only by understanding movement patterns of their prey can we really come up with conservation answers for this ailing species. In August, the Patrick Niven Conservation Biology Award, worth R12 000, was presented to Sarah Lewis as the top CB student for 2010/2011 at a special cocktail event in the Niven Library. The award was sponsored by the Johnson Family Trust, and was handed over to Sarah by Peter Johnson, a long- standing member of the Fitz’s Advisory Board. It came as a real shock to us all when Peter died suddenly at his home only two months later, on 20 October. Perhaps all the bad news should come at once, because earlier in the year, Dan Niven – Patrick’s brother and another long-serving Board member – also died (5 July). We will remain forever indebted to them for their long and Phil Hockey and Peter Johnson valuable support of the Fitz and our thoughts go out to the families of both congratulate the recipient of the first Peter and Dan. Patrick Niven Conservation Biology Award, However, following this sad news, 2011 was a record year in terms of Sarah Lewis, top MSc Conservation Biology student 2010-11. (Photo: Rob graduating students, with no fewer than 9 PhDs, 13 MScs and 8 Honours Little) degrees being awarded to Fitz-supported students. Despite this large number passing through the portals, the total number of students the Fitz will be hosting in 2012 is set to rise from the 64 of 2011 to some 73 (I wonder where we are going to put them all!). It can safely be said that 2011 was not only the ANNUAL REPORT 2011 4 MISSION STATEMENT To promote and undertake scientific studies involving birds, and contribute to the practice affecting the maintenance of biological diversity and the sustained use of biological resources. Photo: Peter Ryan 5 PERCY FITZPATRICK INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN ORNITHOLOGY DIRECTOR’S REPORT year in which the Fitz had its greatest number of graduates in history, but was also the year in which it hosted the greatest numbers of students.