Citizens, scientists collaborate on climate change bird booklet
Our environment is changing fast as a result of changes in the global climate and also because of land-transforming human activities. Our ability to weather these changes depends on our capacity to detect the first signs of them.
From cranes to korhaans to queleas, a new booklet describes how bird monitoring and research can provide us with the early warning signs that we need. And there are many such signs in the Western Cape: plummeting numbers of African Penguins, invasions into new areas by Africa’s “feathered locust,” the Red-billed Quelea, and Southern Black Korhaans no longer seen in areas where they were plentiful twenty years ago.
Many of the findings in the booklet are based on data collected for scientific programmes by trained members of the public. By recording and counting birds at particular places and specific times of the year, these “citizen scientists” are helping scientists to build a jigsaw puzzle of our biodiversity.
The 16-page illustrated booklet [1.7 Mb, PDF version] was produced by the South African National Biodiversity Institute and UCT’s Animal Demography Unit, with the support of the Danish Embassy in Pretoria. Aimed at politicians, farmers, conservationists, teachers and the general public, the booklet will be widely distributed in South Africa and was given to delegates at the United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen in December last year.
For further information contact: Dr Phoebe Barnard, 021 799 8722, p.barnard[At]sanbi.org.za, Prof Les Underhill, 021 6503227, les.underhill[At]uct.ac.za or Dr Marienne de Villiers, marienne.devilliers[At]uct.ac.za
