The general biology of the South African Cliff Swallow Hirundo spilodera was studied over a two year period in the central Orange Free State. This species is highly colonial, nesting mostly on man-made structures such as concrete road bridges. Adult birds were usually faithful to their breeding colony and very few individuals changed colonies. The Cliff Swallow had a surprisingly large vocal repertoire for a swallow and contact calls of the young were individually recognizable. Three species-specific ectoparasites parasitized the Cliff Swallow but none seemed to have a noticeable negative effect on the swallows. Breeding started earlier in larger colonies than in smaller ones and conspecific brood parasitism was a common feature in some colonies. Individual pairs made up to four breeding attempts per season. The findings of this study are compared with the available information on other members of the Hirundinidae and the advantages and costs of Cliff Swallow coloniality are discussed.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Zoology)) --University of Limpopo, 2009 / The aim of this study was to determine the breeding habitat of Blue Crane (Anthropoides paradiseus) by investigating the home range, habitat selection and habitat suitability. Geographic Information System (GIS) was used as the main tool for analysis. Home range sizes of Blue Cranes were studied during the breeding season using direct observation method. A 50% and 95% Adaptive Kernel was used to estimate home range sizes. The home range sizes were 9.0 ha and 43.5 ha for 50% and 95% Adaptive Kernel, respectively. All the nests were located within 50% Adaptive Kernel, often referred to as core area. The nests were located in agricultural land (mainly pasture) and close to water sources. Habitat selection was studied at nest sites (n = 74) and random sites (n = 200) following site attribute design. The Blue Crane showed a preference to breed in agricultural lands, close proximity to water sources, higher elevation areas, within north eastern sandy highveld vegetation, and north facing slope. The Blue Crane also avoided anthropogenic factors such as built-up land, roads and railway line. ModelBuilder extension of ArcGIS software was used to construct a breeding habitat suitability model for Blue Cranes. Nine habitat variables (water source, slope, aspect, elevation, land use, vegetation, built-up land, roads and railway line) were used in the model. The model was constructed using reclassify and weighted overlay command. Highly suitable sites accounted for 601, 448 ha, while moderately suitable sites accounted for 823, 593 ha, and least suitable sites accounted for 3, 000, 153 ha. This study demonstrated the effective use of GIS technology in analysing the breeding ecology of Blue Crane. The GIS technology provided capabilities for capturing and analysing varied and large data. It was also evident that availability of accurate and complete species data remains vital to enable the full utilization of the GIS technology.

The Cape gannet has undergone considerable population change and redistribution over the past 50 years. This has been linked to shifts in the abundance and distribution of their dominant prey, sardine and anchovy. Five breeding colonies, along the west coast of Southern Africa, have shown rapid population declines as a result of reduced prey availability. In contrast, a single colony (Bird Island, Algoa Bay) on the south coast of South Africa has, over the same period, grown fivefold and now supports approximately two thirds of the total population. Due to its conservation importance, and isolation from other breeding localities, it is important to assess the health of the Bird Island colony, and determine how foraging distribution relates to the environment to evaluate current measures of protection. This was achieved through two related studies; a long-term dietary analysis spanning 34 years, and a spatial foraging study, which related three years of tracking data to estimates of prey availability, oceanographic features and marine protected areas (MPAs). The results of the dietary study showed that the dietary constituents of Cape gannets breeding at Bird Island have remained similar over the last three decades, but the importance of sardine and anchovy has increased significantly. For sardine, in particular, this reflects an increased availability of this species (as deduced from hydroacoustic surveys) within the foraging range of the Bird Island colony. The dietary abundance of anchovy was found to be negatively correlated with that of sardine. Surprisingly,.the dietary abundance of anchovy was also negatively correlated with estimates of its availability based on acoustic surveys. The latter is likely to be due to sardine being a preferred prey item. Recent decreases in the dietary contribution of sardine (since 2005) suggest that this species is becoming less available to gannets, with profound implications in terms of nutrient gain associated with foraging. However, this has been mediated by an increase in the dietary contribution of anchovy, which now accounts for the vast majority of prey taken. Spatially, the foraging range of the Bird Island colony expanded during the three years of study, indicating an increase in effort. This increase was likely in an effort to track a distributional change of sardine and anchovy, which showed an apparent westward shift during the study period. There was, however, no evidence of birds tracking features associated with high productivity. This may have been partly due to anomalously warm conditions during the summer of 2012/2013, in which an absence of coastal upwelling prevented surface cooling. Nonetheless, low sea surface temperatures and high chlorophyll a concentrations do not seem to be reliable indicators of important Cape gannet foragingareas. Foraging effort was largely concentrated outside of MPAs, indicating that the current MPA network provides little protection for foraging gannets. This could change with the additional protection of the proposed Greater Addo Elephant National Park MPA expansion, as prey species are allowed to recover following the removal of fishing pressure. Overall, the colony appears to be in good condition as the diet is still dominated by live prey items, and the foraging range remains smaller than many of the colonies along the west coast. However, it is important that monitoring be continued, in particular with respect to changes in the availability of sardine and anchovy. Long-term shifts of these species out of the colony‘s foraging range could negatively influence the population in the future. This might be worsened by interspecific competition for prey resources. Considering the conservation importance of this population, maintenance of healthy prey stocks within the home range of breeding Cape gannets should be prioritised in order to prevent declines similar to those observed at west coast colonies.

For several decades now, seabirds have been considered to be useful indicators of the state of their prey resources because of how they reflect lower-level trophic variability through proxies such as diet or behaviour. However, collection of appropriate data is often challenging in the marine environment because of logistical or financial constraints. In this study, time-activity budgets were studied in the Cape gannet (Morus capensis), a seabird which has been advocated as a potential bioindicator for local epipelagic prey. VHF transmitters attached to PVC leg-rings were fitted to 50 adult breeding pairs during the 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 breeding seasons at Bird Island, Algoa Bay, to determine whether an automated method of continuously collecting time-activity budget data can replace conventional laborious direct observations. To validate that the foraging trip duration data generated from the automated method was a reflection of foraging effort, Time-Depth Recorders (TDRs) were simultaneously equipped to birds with VHF transmitters for three weeks. In order to assess the influence of factors other than prey availability on parent time-activity budgets, sex, chick age and body condition were measured. Additionally, chick growth and survival were recorded in order to investigate the gender-specific effects of parental time-activity budget variability on these parameters. Attachment of VHF transmitters to leg-rings of adult Cape gannets had no observable negative effects on the adults or their chicks in terms of adult body condition, nest attendance and foraging trip durations, or chick growth and survival. Furthermore, the frequency distribution of behaviour bout (foraging trip and nest attendance) durations was no different between automated and directly observed data. However, the automated method did record shorter behaviour bouts, largely attributed to the increased likelihood of direct observations missing birds returning briefly to their nests during older chick provisioning. Additionally, foraging trip duration was highly correlated to foraging effort in terms of time spent resting on the sea surface, flying and diving. The automated method therefore appears to be a good reflection of direct nest attendance observations and foraging effort. Cape gannet time-activity budgets were related to chick age and parental sex. Especially as chicks neared fledging, females spent significantly longer periods of time foraging than males, with males consequently provisioning their chicks more often. Furthermore, adults departing their nests earlier spent more time away from the nest foraging as more same-day daylight hours were available. Chick growth was a function of parent foraging trip duration and associated prey delivery rates. Chick survival was most strongly affected by the amount of time which chicks were left unattended by both parents and consequently exposed to predation by kelp gulls (Larus dominicanus) or to adverse weather conditions. Additionally, for females (but not males) there appeared to be a trade-off between foraging trip duration and chick survival. The Cape gannet appears to demonstrate a strategy whereby the costs of reproduction to the female are shifted towards male-dominated chick provisioning as the chick nears fledging. Drivers of time-activity budget variability such as chick age and parental sex therefore need to be considered if using data on foraging trip duration as a proxy of foraging effort and prey availability.