|
Bid to save blue swallow
29/10/2002 21:36 - (SA)
Durban - The University of Natal and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife have begun a bid to save South Africa's most endangered bird - the blue swallow.
A group from the university's School of Botany, Zoology and
Geography and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife have begun an exercise to find out how to slow the bird's decline.
Only 80 breeding pairs exist in South Africa, with half of them in KwaZulu Natal. Last year only 37 pairs successfully fledged their offspring.
The rescue bid has been funded with R50 000 from the Wildlands Trust, an NGO concerned with conservation-based community development in KwaZulu-Natal. The money comes from Travellers Worldwide, a United Kingdom-based agency that finds volunteers for various projects.
During the breeding season from September to March, selected
swallows in the Impendle area of the Natal Midlands will be fitted with tiny telemetry transmitters - a tracking device so small it can be fitted to a bird's feather.
Researchers will be able to track the movements of the birds to determine how they use their habitat and environment.
Blue swallows nest underground in old sinkholes or abandoned
aardvark dens, but aardvarks are decreasing in numbers and in some areas are locally extinct. The moist grassland used by blue
swallows as their habitat is also diminishing.
Wildlife spokesperson James Wakelin said: "The Blue Swallow, along
with cranes and oribi, are all Red Data species. The main issue is
conserving the habitat. If the habitat is properly managed, the
animal numbers will increase on their own."
- SAPA
|
