Biodiversity Observations最新文献

{"title":"Dwarf Ravens kill and eat a Spotted Thicknee","authors":"P. Wairasho","doi":"10.15641/BO.V10I0.602","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15641/BO.V10I0.602","url":null,"abstract":"Dwarf Ravens kill and eat a Spotted Thicknee \u0000The Dwarf Raven or Somali Crow Corvus edithae is an endemic resident in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somali, Kenya and SE Sudan (C Hillary Fry & Stuart Keith et al. 2000). In Kenya they are locally found mostly in the North from around Kapedo, Laisamis, Mado Gashi and Wajir areas. These birds belong to the Corvidae family. They are medium to large passerine birds. They are conspicuous, bold, inquisitive and highly adaptable. As a family they occupy a wide range of habitats including forest, woodland, grassland, tundra, desert and cliffs but more often around human habitation (C Hillary Fry & Stuart Keith et al. 2000). \u0000These species in particular inhabits deserts, semi-deserts, arid plains, dry savannas and open thorn bush from sea level to usually around 2000 m ASL (C Hillary Fry & Stuart Keith et al. 2000). Their general behavior is not well documented but are known to be solitary or in pairs and in flocks of up to 100 in the non-breeding season. They are usually fearless and aggressive. \u0000Their food consists of small ground-dwelling animals, carrion, and some plants, also bird eggs, tick and lice (C Hillary Fry & Stuart Keith et al. 2000) and largely considered to be scavengers. So while at Turkana in May 2018 I was surprised to witness a small group of the species behave like raptors in pursuit of their prey. A murder of three Dwarf Ravens landed about 50 m from where I was standing, and begun rummaging through the small dry bushes around. I had not even taken much notice of two fully grown Spotted Thicknees (Burhinus capensis) nearby, thanks to their cryptic plumage blending well with the sun bleached volcanic rocks spewed all over this vast arid region interspersed by short dry grass and bushes. Before long I noticed something emerge fast from the short bushes apparently disturbed by the ravens. It was a young Spotted Thicknee, not fully grown but just as tall as the parents who were close by. The ravens actively pursued the young Thicknee, caught it and relentlessly attacked it. The vicious attack was briefly interrupted when an Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus landed nearby and again when a White-headed Vulture Trigonoceps occipitalis also landed nearby. The parents of the young Thicknee watched from a safe distance away and made no attempts to rescue the fledgling. Eventually the murder of crows killed the Thicknee before proceeding to dismember it and devour it.  We could not find other records of Corvids actively hunting and killing live prey but it is likely desert dwelling corvids will often resort to catching live prey (of any taxa) \u0000Acknowledgements \u0000Many thanks to Dr. Peter Njoroge for his advice in the presentation of this record. \u0000References \u0000Fry, C. H., Keith, S. and Urban, E.K. (Eds) (2000). The Birds of Africa Vol. VI Academic Press, London. \u0000Checklist of the Birds of Kenya, Fourth Edition, OS-c EANHS September 2009","PeriodicalId":155392,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity Observations","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132248821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mad buffalo?","authors":"Julio De Castro, Mabel De Castro","doi":"10.15641/bo.v10i0.619","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15641/bo.v10i0.619","url":null,"abstract":"The article describes an unusual behaviour by three Cape Buffalo regarding a pride of Lions on a Greater Kudu kill at the Shingwedzi River in the Kruger National Park, South Africa.","PeriodicalId":155392,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity Observations","volume":"88 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129857240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bird distribution dynamics - Indigenous francolins in South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland","authors":"R. Lerm","doi":"10.15641/BO.V10I0.599","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15641/BO.V10I0.599","url":null,"abstract":"This is one of a series of papers on bird distribution dynamics that deals with the six indigenous francolin species of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. These gamebirds are affected by various ecological and anthropogenic drivers such as fire, livestock grazing, agriculture, wing shooting and other forms of habitat modification. Their resident statuses and ground-living habits also renders them vulnerable to predators as well as the aforementioned drivers. Assessing the differences between reporting rates of the two South African Bird Atlas Projects as well as overlaying a recent national land cover spatial dataset we attempted to identify which habitats might have caused declines and/or increases in distribution. Using the same methods as with previous bird distribution dynamics papers, we revealed that most species have declined but, in parts of their distribution increases are evident since the first bird atlas project. Here, the perceived drivers of changes in distribution mostly in the form of land cover, are diverse and varied between species. Unfortunately, we could only speculate on the effects of fire as the land cover dataset does not provide a burnt-area class.","PeriodicalId":155392,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity Observations","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129073577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bird Distribution Dynamics - African black oystercatcher in South Africa","authors":"R. Lerm, L. Underhill","doi":"10.15641/BO.V10I0.595","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15641/BO.V10I0.595","url":null,"abstract":"This is another paper on bird distribution dynamics in Biodiversity Observations. The objective of this series of papers is to report on the ranges of bird species as revealed by the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2, 2007 onwards) and to describe how their ranges have changed since the first bird atlas (SABAP1, mainly 1987 /- 1991), about two decades apart. The African Black Oystercatcher Haemetopus moquini is neither considered a Red-listed species globally nor regionally however, this endemic and iconic bird was expected to decline due to a variety of anthropogenic and natural influences hence, it received much attention from the scientific community. SABAP data supported the findings of some previous projects that looked at both oytsercacther distribution, dispersion and feeding ecology along South Africa's (SA) coastline as well as that of the alien Mediterranean Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis. Possible reasons for a relatively recent and northern presence along the SA coastline could be due to southern populations experiencing food shortages during the breeding season that result in seasonal dispersion or carrying capacity on the mainland has been reached. Inside the /oystercatcher's breeding range, the alien mussel serves as an additional food source that probably explains the largest SABAP2 reporting rates along the southern regions of the coastline as this area coincides with the /mussel's distribution range.","PeriodicalId":155392,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity Observations","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122261152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Predation of porcupine Hystrix africaeaustralis in the den by honey badger Mellivora capensis","authors":"Kathy Arbon","doi":"10.15641/BO.V10I0.597","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15641/BO.V10I0.597","url":null,"abstract":"A porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis) den was placed under observation by camera trap, and subsequently a honey badger (Mellivora capensis) was recorded raiding the den to prey on the young porcupines inside.","PeriodicalId":155392,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity Observations","volume":"83 9","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113982934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"IRIDESCENCE OF VIOLET WOODHOOPOE MANTLE FEATHERS","authors":"M. Cooper, B. Sewell, M. Jaffer","doi":"10.15641/BO.V10I0.504","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15641/BO.V10I0.504","url":null,"abstract":"Mantle feathers of Namibian Violet Woodhoopoe Phoeniculus  damarensis were examined by light and transmission electron microscopy. Iridescence of violet barbules and their biological basis were figured and discussed.","PeriodicalId":155392,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity Observations","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132574666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"FIRST BREEDING RECORD OF PINTADO PETREL DAPTION CAPENSIS AT MARION ISLAND","authors":"M. Masotla","doi":"10.15641/BO.V10I0.505","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15641/BO.V10I0.505","url":null,"abstract":"Pintado or Cape Petrels Daption capense have a circumpolar distribution and have been recorded breeding at 23 localities in the Southern Ocean. They have been recorded as vagrants to Marion Island since 1951. Oosthuizen et al. (2009) regarded them as occurring too frequently for the species to be regarded as a vagrant, but was never thought to be breeding there. This is the first record of the species breeding at the PEIs and brings the number of seabird species, including the Lesser Sheathbill, reported breeding there to 31.","PeriodicalId":155392,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity Observations","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133384982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"OdonataMAP: Progress report on the Atlas of the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Africa: 2016/17 and 2017/18","authors":"L. Underhill, Megan Loftie-Eaton, R. Navarro","doi":"10.15641/BO.V9I0.647","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15641/BO.V9I0.647","url":null,"abstract":"This paper reports progress with OdonataMAP, the Atlas of Dragonflies and Damselflies of Africa, for the two-year period 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2018. During the two-year review period, the database for the project grew by 30,423 records to 52,257, starting from 22,809 records collected between 2010 and June 2016. Submissions were made from 25 African countries. In six of the nine provinces of South Africa, the number of OdonataMAP records for the province more than doubled. The provinces in which the number of records were not doubled were Gauteng (44% of records made during reporting period), Free State and North West (both 46%). Five observers contributed more than 1000 records over the two-year period, and a further 10 between 500 and 999 records. The total number of observers for the two-year period was 529, compared with 295 in the 2010–16 period. One of the important success of OdonataMAP during the review period was to increase the number of observers, and to reduce the project’s dependence on a small number of citizen scientists.","PeriodicalId":155392,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity Observations","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116771649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"SW Chat winter summer movements","authors":"D. De Swardt","doi":"10.15641/bo.v9i0.529","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15641/bo.v9i0.529","url":null,"abstract":"No abstract","PeriodicalId":155392,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity Observations","volume":"101 2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114174583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Odonata of the Kruger National Park","authors":"L. Underhill, Megan Loftie-Eaton, R. Navarro","doi":"10.15641/BO.V9I0.634","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15641/BO.V9I0.634","url":null,"abstract":"The number of species of dragonflies and damselflies recorded in the Kruger National, South Africa, was 103 in April 2018. This figure was based on a database containing 2,817 records of Odonata, made since 1980, from the 52 quarter degree grid cells which intersect with the Kruger National Park. Records were available for 41 of the 52 grid cells. The most frequently recorded species were Red-veined Dropwing Trithemis arteriosa (167 records) and the Orange-veined Dropwing Trithemis kirbyi (144 records), both recorded in 33 grid cells, and Southern Banded Groundling Brachythemis leucosticta (175 records) and Broad Scarlet (141 records) both in 29 grid cells. Based on records up to April 2018, the median date of the most recent record for species was September 2017, so that half of the 103 species had been recorded during summer 2017/18. This report could be used to motivate the proclamation of the river and wetland systems of the Kruger National Park as a “Wetland of International Importance” in terms of the Ramsar Convention. Two-thirds of the Odonata of South Africa, and one-eighth of the Odonata of Africa, have been recorded in the Kruger National Park.","PeriodicalId":155392,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity Observations","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124288913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}