Street-wise : does prey abundance buffer black sparrowhawks (Accipiter melanoleucus) from the negative health impacts of urbanisation?

As trends in urbanisation continue globally, there is a growing need to understand the impacts of urban development on wildlife. Whilst urban impacts on patterns of diversity and abundance of species have been well-studied, there remains a distinct lack of understanding around the impacts on ecological interactions. Different species have different levels of tolerance to urban disturbance, some species even appear to thrive in urban areas and make use of human-subsidised resources; but the physiological costs and trade-offs faced by urban-dwelling species are poorly understood. Given that their range in South Africa has only recently expanded into the human-dominated landscapes of the Western Cape, the Black Sparrowhawk (Accipiter melanoleucus) provides an excellent opportunity to explore some of these questions. In this study we explored how urbanisation may affect the health of this raptor on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. If the health of this species is negatively influenced by levels of urbanisation, this might be driven by differences in diet and prey availability across the urban spectrum. Thus, we explored this potential mechanism by examining diet composition and assessing prey abundance within different territories and habitat types. The health of nestling Black Sparrowhawks was evaluated through their immune response (Heterophil/Lymphocyte ratio in white blood cell counts), body condition (based on morphometric measurements) and blood parasite infection (presence and abundance of Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon). Trends in diet composition along a gradient of urban cover were determined through the analysis of prey remains collected in the immediate nest surroundings and differences in prey abundance were determined through point counts in different habitat types

COVID-19 and citizen science: lessons learned from southern Africa

The COVID-19 lockdown has had a marked effect on citizen science projects, such as the Southern African Bird Atlas Project, SABAP2. With their  mobility severely constrained, most citizen scientists in South Africa were not able to submit full protocol lists during the Alert Level 5 lockdown. There was a 70% decline in full protocol list submissions in April 2020, and only 20% of the number of pentads was surveyed, compared with the same period in the previous three years. The decline in ad hoc lists is also evident, with about a 50% decline in the number of lists submitted and 25% of the usual number of pentads. The number of citizen scientists submitting ad hoc lists only declined by about 15% in April, compared with previous years, indicating that volunteers were still eager to contribute to the atlas project, despite the challenging conditions. The BirdLasser ‘Lockdown Challenge’ further encouraged participation. Although the ability of citizen scientists to contribute full protocol lists to SABAP2 may have suffered, other projects with a scope more suited to lockdown thrived. The ‘Lockdown Garden Surveys’ instigated as part of a study of urban bird communities proved extremely successful, with 283 people regularly contributing point counts, many on a daily basis. The overwhelmingly positive response to initiatives like these indicates that the lockdown may have actually increased people’s desire to participate in citizen science. Thepandemic also has put the spotlight on nature within cities, encouraging people to take a fresh look at their surrounding greenspaces. The accompanying boom in citizen science and interest in nature is something that must be harnessed going forward, and we hope this can be sustained despite the harsh economic climate exacerbated by the pandemic. French Title: COVID-19 et la science citoyenne: enseignements tirés de l’Afrique australe Le confinement du COVID-19 a eu un effet marqué sur des projets de la science citoyenne tels que le projet d’atlas des oiseaux d’Afrique australe, SABAP2. Leur mobilité étant fortement limitée, la plupart des citoyens scientifiques d’Afrique du Sud n’ont pas pu soumettre des listes complètes de protocoles pendant le confinement du niveau d’alerte 5. En avril 2020, on a constaté une baisse de 70% des soumissions de listes de protocoles  complets, et seulement 20% du nombre de pentades ont été étudiés par rapport à la même période au cours des trois années précédentes. Le déclin des listes ad hoc est également évident, avec une baisse d’environ 50% du nombre de listes soumises et de 25% du nombre habituel de pentades. Le nombre de citoyens scientifiques soumettant des listes ad hoc n’a diminué que d’environ 15% en avril par rapport aux années précédentes, ce qui indique que les volontaires étaient toujours désireux de contribuer au projet d’atlas, malgré les conditions difficiles. Le ‘défi duconfirment’ de BirdLasser a encore encouragé la participation. Si la capacité des scientifiques citoyens à contribuer aux listes de protocoles complètes du SABAP2 a pu souffrir, d’autres projets d’une portée plus adaptée au verrouillage ont prospéré. Les ‘Lockdown Garden Surveys’, lancés dans le cadre d’une étude sur les communautés d’oiseaux en milieu urbain, se sont révélés extrêmement fructueux, 283 personnes ayant régulièrement contribué au comptage de points, dont beaucoup sur une base quotidienne. La réaction extrêmement positive à des initiatives de ce type indique que le confinement a peut-être en fait accru le désir des gens de participer à la science citoyenne. La pandémie a également mis en lumière la nature dans les villes, encourageant les gens à porter un regard neuf sur les espaces verts environnants. L’essor de la science citoyenne et de l’intérêt pour la nature qui l’accompagne doit être exploité à l’avenir, et nous espérons qu’il pourra se poursuivre malgré le climat  économique difficile exacerbé par la pandémie. Keywords: BirdLasser, citizen science, COVID19, SABAP2, South Afric

Woody Plant Traits and Life-History Strategies across Disturbance Gradients and Biome Boundaries in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park

International audienc

Global COVID-19 lockdown highlights humans as both threats and custodians of the environment

The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from 89 different studies. Hundreds of reports of unusual species observations from around the world suggest that animals quickly responded to the reductions in human presence. However, negative effects of lockdown on conservation also emerged, as confinement resulted in some park officials being unable to perform conservation, restoration and enforcement tasks, resulting in local increases in illegal activities such as hunting. Overall, there is a complex mixture of positive and negative effects of the pandemic lockdown on nature, all of which have the potential to lead to cascading responses which in turn impact wildlife and nature conservation. While the net effect of the lockdown will need to be assessed over years as data becomes available and persistent effects emerge, immediate responses were detected across the world. Thus, initial qualitative and quantitative data arising from this serendipitous global quasi-experimental perturbation highlights the dual role that humans play in threatening and protecting species and ecosystems. Pathways to favorably tilt this delicate balance include reducing impacts and increasing conservation effectiveness

Conservation and ecology of African Raptors

Africa supports breeding populations of over 20% of all raptor species globally and over 20 regular Palearctic migratory raptors. Here, we discuss the importance of Africa in terms of the diversity of both resident and migrant species, the ecosystem services they provide, and the threats they face. We examine the state of knowledge of African raptors, including monitoring to determine trends, and describe ongoing research. African raptors provide important ecosystem services, by bringing in tourism revenues, functioning as bio-indicator species, and controlling the spread of pathogens and pest species. Many species are under pressure from growing human populations and associated habitat loss, persecution, and pollution. Most are declining, with some exceptions, some catastrophically so, such as vultures. Of 66 African species, 26% are currently on the IUCN Red List. For many species, there is a need for their conservation status to be re-evaluated, but rigorous monitoring for most of Africa is generally lacking. A systematic literature review showed considerable variation in the number of studies per species, 36% of 67 species having been relatively “well-studied” (12 or more studies), but 64% with less than 10 studies. There has been a general and consistent increase in the numbers of studies on African raptors, the majority from Southern Africa (n = 466, 62%). We found most studies focused on feeding ecology (n= 247) and distribution and abundance, with the least number of studies on behaviour and movement ecology. We list some ongoing studies and conclude that developing future leadership in research and conservation will be critical for successful raptor conservation in Africa

Global COVID-19 lockdown highlights humans as both threats and custodians of the environment

The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from 89 different studies. Hundreds of reports of unusual species observations from around the world suggest that animals quickly responded to the reductions in human presence. However, negative effects of lockdown on conservation also emerged, as confinement resulted in some park officials being unable to perform conservation, restoration and enforcement tasks, resulting in local increases in illegal activities such as hunting. Overall, there is a complex mixture of positive and negative effects of the pandemic lockdown on nature, all of which have the potential to lead to cascading responses which in turn impact wildlife and nature conservation. While the net effect of the lockdown will need to be assessed over years as data becomes available and persistent effects emerge, immediate responses were detected across the world. Thus initial qualitative and quantitative data arising from this serendipitous global quasi-experimental perturbation highlights the dual role that humans play in threatening and protecting species and ecosystems. Pathways to favorably tilt this delicate balance include reducing impacts and increasing conservation effectiveness