Mammal watching in Namibia and South Africa

Posted by Stu

A bit of a personal post this, and a link to Jon Hall’s excellent Mammal Watching pages.  This is a short report on 60 mammal species and some birds seen on our (Jo, Amy, Katie and my) August 2016 trip to Namibia and South Africa. 

The fun started quite unexpectedly with an overnight stop on the drive from Johannesburg to Lambert’s Bay at Akkedisbult Cottage, situated on a farm near Hopetown. The owners, Gerald and Nici are progressive farmers, employing ‘guard donkeys’ to protect their sheep, using limited and selective control of predators such as Caracal and Jackel, and having a detailed knowledge of the ecology of their land. They invited us for an impromptu night drive in their 1950s Land Rover. Two hours in the freezing winds brought us excellent views of an Aardvark and two Aardwolf, several Bat-eared Fox, a Zorilla, and numerous Spring Hare. Black-footed Cat, which people see at Marrick near Kimberley, and Mountain Reedbuck also occur.  

Next stop was the lovely Lambert’s Bay, looking for Cape Clapper Lark and Cape Long-billed Lark and to visit the Cape Gannet colony. Mammals included Meerkat, Cape Fur Seal and a breaching Humpback Whale.

Tankwa Karoo National Park – we had seen Aardvark here a few years ago but no luck this time – in fact goodies were few and far between  - some Bat-eared Fox and Cape Mountain Zebra. The Tankwa, however, was as gorgeous as I remembered it and so well worth a visit. We stayed two nights in the beautifully remote Varschfontein cottage and one night at De Zyfer cottage close to the HQ, where there was a half-eaten porcupine in one of the outhouses.

Etosha NP – one night Okaukuejo; two nights Halali; two nights Namutoni (camping)

There were a lot of civilians in Etosha, especially in the campsites, but it is a fantastic place for mammals. A great feature of a stay in the park are the illuminated waterholes at Okaukuejo and Halali, the one at Namatoni being perhaps not so good. Lots of ungulates on the drives, especially around Halali and Namutoni, including Black and White Rhinos, Black-faced Impala (introduced into the park during the Angolan Civil War) and the lovely Damara Dikdik, plenty of Elephants, Giraffe and Burchell’s Zebra, several Lions, one Cheetah with small cub, and a single Leopard. Honey Badgers are a certainty at Halali Rest Camp – in the bins and drinking from the water taps at night.

Evenings/nights at waterholes produced

Okaukuejo (dusk-10 pm) – Black Rhino (2), White Rhino (1), Elephant, and a stunning Brown Hyena (1 – wandered in at 8pm, drank and wandered out). This is a superb waterhole with large numbers of animals during the day and goodies at night.

Halali (around 8 hrs on two evenings) – Spotted hyena (6), lion (4), Cape Porcupine (1), Cape Fox (2), Black Rhino (2), Cape Hare (sev). Much quieter than Okaukuejo but fantastically exciting nonetheless.

Erongo

I loved this place and think it has great potential. The Conservancy (gated and well policed) is doing well I believe and they have recently introduced White Rhino here. We stayed at the Mara, opposite the expensive Erongo Wilderness Lodge – nice rooms and a campsite. The owner is really into his mammals and has seen Brown Hyena (Spotted is not here apparently), Leopard etc etc on night drives along the road, and Cheetah in the afternoons.
You are free to drive the roads within the conservancy at night. Around five hours of night driving up and down the D2315 and D2316 produced great views of Aardwolf and Bat-eared Fox on the D2316 (rough road), plus Giraffe, Mountain Zebra, Gemsbok, Common Duiker etc on the D2315. I wish we’d stayed longer and done more free night-driving – lots of predators to see. We didn’t see Black Mongoose.

Cape Cross 

Our target here was, of course, Brown Hyena. We camped two nights at the Cape Cross Lodge (cold) which was nice. There are other places along the coast but all looked pretty grim. We spent the first dawn overlooking the seal colony fence from the entrance road (from the main road C34) to the lodge (in fact we could see the main gate to the seal sanctuary from our position). No sign, so we spent the next hour driving around not seeing hyenas but seeing lots of jackals. We found lots of brown hyena footprints in various places – especially around seal carcasses on the beach at the first turn off north. Also no sign between 7-10 pm driving and scanning along various roads in the area. The following morning we positioned ourselves before dawn on a rise on the main road at about 210 74’ 26.03 S 130 99’ 25.06. No luck until 15 mins after dawn when one walked right past us – and we followed it up the track towards the crater for 25 mins until it entered the dry river bed at 210 43’ 04.24 S; 130 59’ 59.16 E. Hyenas apparently come to drink at the small trough at the front of the lodge – but it would be a long wait I guess.

 

Then we drove through Walvis Bay and into the Namib-Naukluft National Park, staying at Homeb campsite and visiting the nicer Mirabib, nearby. Plenty of Mountain Zebra and Gemsbok, but few other mammals of interest. The gravel plains on the road close to Homeb was the only place I saw Burchell's Courser (group of 12). We were disappointed with Sossusvlei - crowded and touristy. The area has good numbers of mammals and looks especially good for mesopredators. It is a shame you need to be out of the park by nightfall. Within the park, the area where the road crosses the river looked great, Dune Lark was easy at the base of the dune near the lookout, and Brown Hyena tracks were seen around the base of Elim Dune.

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

We entered the park from Namibia at the Mata Mata border post and had three nights (Nossob then two nights at Twei Riverein – the whole place was heavily booked in August). The area around Nossob is superb, especially for predators – two Cheetah sightings (Twin Palms road was good), Lions, Bat-eared Fox etc. 

An all-nighter at the Nossob waterhole (illuminated until 10 pm and from 4 am – otherwise scanned with a Maglite) was a bit disappointing but nevertheless exciting - Spotted Hyena (2), Lion (2), Cape Fox (2), Spring Hare (1). Anything can turn up here.

Driving within the park from Twei Riverein was sometimes slow but we managed one Leopard, two Cheetah (all five cheetah we saw were females with cubs), Lion, Spotted Hyena, and the only African Wild Cat of the trip (crossed the road near Rooiputs).

Any further information, please get in touch s.marsden@mmu.ac.uk.

Java's mountain forests, and the Asian songbird crisis

Posted by Stu
 
I recently returned from a two week visit to Java preparing for some research we hope to get going on the island in the coming months. Much of my time was spent with Bas van Balen, a world authority on birds on the island. First, we have a grant from the Shearwater Foundation to prepare for surveys of seriously endangered birds in and around twelve mountains in West Java. Some of these species, such as Javan Green Magpie and Rufous-fronted Laughingthrush have been hit by habitat loss, but particularly by crazy levels of capture for the cagebird trade. Some of the mountains simply have not been studied for decades and we need to know if some of these highly threatened species (birds but also primates and other taxa) can survive there. We may also be able to identify some potential sites for reintroductions, especially for the magpie.

Above: Workshop on bird surveying at Burung Indonesia's Bogor office; Below: Practicing methods at Gunung Gede with Bas van Balen (Photos: Stu)

One of our activities in Bogor was to run a four day training course on bird surveys for staff of Burung, the Indonesian BirdLife partner, and students from University of Indonesia and Bogor Agricultural University. Two days were spent in the classroom, talking about different survey methods and analysis, tackling bird identification issues, and problem-solving of how to get the best out of surveys in difficult and diverse situations. Then we moved to Gunung Gede and put some of these methods into practice for a couple of days.
 
Then attention turned to two PhDs I am hoping to set up in partnership with Chester Zoo. These concern the huge cagebird trade on the island and its catastrophic effect on wild populations of songbirds. The extent of the problem is laid out in full in this Forktail paper by James Eaton, Bas, Nigel Collar and others. It makes quite depressing reading. They tell a story of empty forests, cleared of shamas, and the wholesale loss of leafbirds and other species that really ought to be common across the landscape.

Two species impacted hugely by the cage bird trade: nominate melanopterus Black-winged Starling (left) and Greater Green Leafbird (right)

With Ria Saryanthi from Burung Indonesia I visited a large ‘bird farm’ on the outskirts of Bogor – these commercial captive breeding facilities are springing up across Java. I was expecting a really depressing ‘bird battery farm’ – but this place was rather different. Sure, they bred birds such as Straw-headed Bulbul and White-rumped Sharma (and several parrot and cockatoo species) but this was a well-run business. What was most incredible is the price of some of these birds. A pair of Straw-headed Bulbuls can fetch 45M Rupiah (> US$3,000) while a ‘singer’ (a champion who is used to teach younger birds to sing) can fetch more than $5,000. The troubled White-rumped Sharma regularly fetches $2,000, while a grand champion singer can fetch an astonishing $50,000.
 
What we hope to do is to run two PhDs in parallel – the first will look at factors influencing supply to, and demand for, the bird trade. Its aim is to identify points, people and psychologies that conservationists can target to turn an obvious love of birds in cages into a desire to protect birds in the wild. The second PhD will focus on the Critically Endangered Black-winged Starling, its current pitiful status in the wild and a detailed study of a release programme for the species, perhaps around Cikananga Wildlife Centre. I had some really positive discussions at the centre with Anais Tritto and the centre’s director, Resit Sozer.

Anais Tritto checks on starling breeding activity remotely at Cikananga (Photo: Stu)

Finally, I travelled with Bas to visit some key sites on the north coast for Java’s lowland endemics. This included Muara Angke, a fantastic urban nature reserve in bustling Jakarta (which reminded me again of the loss of Manchester’s Pomona island). Depressingly, we failed to see Javan White-eye at a couple of sites around Pamanukan – others have reported it to be getting hard to see in the area. Trappers had been active in the area before our visit, using MP3s of its call to catch whole foraging parties using glue. Individual white-eyes may sell for around $20 each. 

Habitat for, but without, the Javan White-eye. The species is currently Near threatened but is a sure bet for uplisting (Photo: Stu)

We had better luck at a nearby cement factory where Java Sparrows are able to  persist, simply due to the presence of security within the quarry compound. This once ubiquitous species has virtually vanished from the map due to excess trapping.
 

Java Sparrows, protected from trappers by security around a cement factory in Java (Photo: Reza A. Ahmadi)

More on these PhDs soon I hope.

Monitoring biodiversity on MMU campus

Posted by Simon Valle, Kosta Tzoulas and Stu

As part of its award-winning environmental policy, MMU has committed to enhancing biodiversity on its estate. A first series of exploratory 'bioblitzes' were done by staff, students and local experts in 2015 on the Cheshire Campus and in Ryebank Fields - these yielded very interesting data on the surprising number of species that can live so close to busy urban settlements. This year, we started our monitoring programme, again with the help of consultants at The Environment Partnership and students on the MMU Futures programme. 

Students monitor aquatic plants and invertebrates in the newly created wetland at Birley Fields (Photo: Stu)

Our first step was to set up 20 x 20 m monitoring plots, placed at key places within the All Saints, Birley Fields and MMU Cheshire campuses. We then used standardised methods to record a range of different animal and plant groups within the plots - trees and bushes, terrestrial and aquatic plants, invertebrates such as Ladybirds, lichens, birds, reptiles and mammals). These counts will form the basis of long-term monitoring of biodiversity levels.

Badgers were 'caught' on several camera traps at the MMU Cheshire campus.

Last year's bioblitz at MMU Cheshire Campus suggested the presence of a badger set, as well as signs of water vole presence (feeding remains, latrines and burrows). In order to confirm this information a number of camera traps were strategically placed as part of this year’s survey effort. Although all evidence suggests that the set may not be in use, the presence of badgers has been documented in several areas of the campus.
 
Camera traps have proved useful to document the presence of other species otherwise difficult to survey (e.g. fox), whereas for more numerous species like rabbits and grey squirrels they provide a useful index of occurrence (i.e. encounter rate) that can be used as a proxy their occurrence over the years. The presence of kingfishers was confirmed along the wetland habitats of MMU Cheshire Campus.
 

Kingfisher, a fantastic bird to have on MMU's estate (Photo: Laitche)

A relatively new UK species of bumblebee, Bombus hypnorum, was recorded both on Birley Fields and Crewe campuses. First recorded in Britain in 2001, this species has been, and still is, rapidly colonising the UK. In Manchester, moth specialist Dr Emma Coulthard has found over 20 individuals of the Diamond-back Moth (Plutella xylostella) which is a migratory species and can come in huge numbers depending on the weather events in the Mediterranean. Vegetation surveys in the Birley Fields showed that, although the campus hosts a limited number of species, it has an impressive structural and micro-habitat variety for an urban environment.

Sampling invertebrates in All Saints Park with the help of Paul Chipman and a ladder (Photo: Stu)

We thank our friends from The Environment Partnership (TEP), MMU staff, MMU's Environment Team for making it possible for us to set up a scientifically rigorous survey framework which will be used in the years to come to monitor species and inform management decisions across MMU's estate.

A new Viper for Europe - already Endangered

Posted by Stu

It is not every day that a new vertebrate is described from Europe. In a new paper published in Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, Samuele Ghielmi and Michele Menegon (MUSE - Museo delle Scienze, Trento), Lorenzo Laddaga (Museo di Scienze, Domodossola), Sylvain Ursenbacher (University of Basel) and Stu talk about the ‘discovery’, morphology, genetics and conservation of Vipera walser, a new viper species from the north-western Italian Alps.

In 2005, Samuele Ghielmi noticed something odd about adders and lizards in the north-western Italian Alps. First, there was a population of European Adder Vipera berus in the area that was disjunct from V. berus populations in the rest of Europe. More intriguing was that within this area, the Common Lizard Zootoca vivipara, one of the adder’s main prey items over much of its European range, was replaced by Zootoca carniolica, its ancestral oviparous (egg-laying) sister species. This observation sparked a morphological and genetic study which led to the naming of Vipera walser. 

The beast - variation in individuals of Vipera walser sp. nov. Adult males (left) and adult females (right).

Vipera walser sp. Nov.

The new species is remarkably distinct genetically from both V. berus and other vipers occurring in western Europe. It shows closer affinities to V. darevskii and V. kaznakovi, species occurring in the Caucasus as well as to the widespread Meadow Viper V. ursinii complex. Morphologically, the new species appears to be more similar to V. berus than to its closest relatives occurring in the Caucasus, but can be readily distinguished in most cases by a combination of meristic features such as number of crown, loreal and periocular scales.

Phylogenetic tree showing position of Vipera walser, and relationships with other Vipera species.

Already Endangered

My own main interest in the new viper is in its conservation. The species is extremely range-restricted (< 500 sq. km) and occurs only in two disjunct sites within the high rainfall valleys of the Alps north of Biella. We recommend that the new species should be classified as globally ‘Endangered’ due to its small and fragmented range, and an inferred population decline (Red List criteria B1a/B2a). The other species closely related to walser are also either Endangered (V. kaznakovi) or Critically Endangered (V. darevskii) so the entire clade is in serious danger of being lost.

The new viper appears to be quite common in suitable habitat within its range. We need detailed studies of the species’ precise habitat requirements, to determine how past and current land use changes have affected the species, and how they might be altered to benefit the species in the near future. The species appears to inhabit open areas, often with rocky outcrops, and may not tolerate woodland unless it is very sparse. European mountains experienced a long period of agropastoral expansion from the Late Middle Ages to the 19th century, with large areas of the Alps converted to pasture and heathlands. These open landscapes were presumably beneficial for V. walser. However, the decline in agropastoral activities in the last 100 years and associated afforestation is probably the biggest threat to the species. Other immediate threats are culling and collection of specimens by enthusiasts.

Habitat of Vipera walser sp. nov

Longer term, the ability of V. walser to withstand or adapt to climatic change expected to take place within its range will be crucial. Its current habitat is restricted to just a few valleys, which experience some of the highest rainfall in the Alps. Climate models indicate that in the next 20 years, these valleys will become far wetter and warmer. Research on how the viper might be able to react to climate change is a priority.

Better forest 'simply' means more frugivores

Posted by Stu
 
We think our paper, just published in Forest Ecology & Management, has quite an important message, and one that should be encouraging, even in an archipelago with so little forest remaining and so many threatened species.

The study was part of Carmela Espanola’s PhD here at MMU and supervised by Nigel Collar, Aldrin Mallari and myself. She and her team walked around 500 km of transects, at 24 sites on the Philippine island of Luzon, looking for large avian frugivores. The target species included large pigeons, hornbills and parrots – birds crucial to proper functioning of forests in the tropics. If these seed dispersing birds disappear or become ‘functionally extinct’ then we might expect serious consequences for the health of forests.

The Imperial pigeons Ducula are key seed dispersers in southeast Asia's forests (Photo: Christine E. Telesforo)

What we did was to relate the presence of the different species to a series of habitat predictors, recorded at over 1,200 plots along the transects – these included things like altitude, canopy cover, and other indications of the quality of the forest. Basically, we asked what the difference was between plots that contained the frugivore species and those where the species was not found.

Survival for species like this Luzon Bleeding-heart is not just a matter of finding suitable habitat, but also avoiding hunting or capture (Photo: Carmela Espanola)

Our first finding was not so surprising - Frugivore species richness was highest in forest with large-girthed trees. But more interesting was that some small-scale agricultural disturbance was tolerated or even favoured by some species. World birders will know well this pattern – low intensity use of forests, which could be a little logging, or especially the creation of small mixed gardens within the forest, can be very good spots to see frugivorous birds. Importantly, our study showed that frugivore richness was highest in forests on flat ground, areas which are usually the first to be converted to agriculture. 

White-eared Brown-dove can tolerate seriously degraded forest, but still prefers good forest on Luzon (Photo: Pablo Espanola)

But I think the most important aspect of the study was our attempt to find non-linearities and other complexities in frugivore presence and richness responses along the habitat quality gradient. I, for one, felt sure that we would find some places along the disturbance gradient where there would be sudden rises in frugivore abundance – and, that in turn, management could be targeted at these points to gain disproportionate benefits for wildlife.

The forest disturbance gradient - importantly, we found linear increases in frugivore richness along this gradient.

We did not find that – rather, the probability of occurrence increased linearly along the forest quality/restoration gradient. While the precise benefits in terms of seed dispersal, and costs of management, at different points along the quality/restoration gradient are likely to be themselves complex, avian frugivores benefit proportionately from step improvements right along the gradient. Thus, any actions to improve forest quality on Luzon, from reforesting the most degraded lands to preventing degradation of relatively healthy forests, are likely to benefit frugivores. 

Carmela's PhD was funded by Loro Parque Fundacion. She now lectures at University of the Philippines.