The status of the southern ground-hornbill in the Grahamstown region, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Hulley, Patrick E; Craig, Adrian J F K

Title: The status of the southern ground-hornbill in the Grahamstown region, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Creator: Hulley, Patrick E
Creator: Craig, Adrian J F K
Subject: To be catalogued
Date Issued: 2007
Date: 2007
Type: text
Type: article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/447909
Identifier: vital:74683
Identifier: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.2989/OSTRICH.2007.78.1.13.57
Description: The Eastern Cape has been the southernmost limit of distribution for the Southern Ground-Hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri throughout the period for which there are written records (Vernon 1986, Vernon and Herremans 1997). No records are known west of Port Elizabeth and the only ones from this 1 map square (33 S 27 E) date from the nineteenth century. Vernon (1986) noted that nest and roost sites for groundhornbills were in large trees or on cliffs, from which the birds commuted to forage in open country. The forest/thicket and grassland mosaic in the Eastern Cape is apparently ancient (Skead 1987), but the grassland sector has been greatly modified by agriculture and human settlement. Since the assessment of the Southern Ground-Hornbill’s status as ‘vulnerable’in the latest Red Data Book (Barnes 2000), it has been suggested that populations in South Africa have declined to a point where its true status is ‘endangered’but this revision was not accepted by IUCN (AC Kemp, pers. comm.). The recent initiative by the Mabula-based NGO, the Ground-hornbill Research and Conservation Project, to reintroduce birds to the Eastern Cape, prompted us to examine records of sightings in this region. The main focus is the Grahamstown map square 33 S 26 E, in which the release site of the first birds—Shamwari Private Game Reserve—is situated. Our source is the published records in Diaz Diary, the newsletter of the Diaz Cross Bird Club, which has branches in Grahamstown and Kenton-on-Sea, covering the period 1978–2004 inclusive.
Format: 7 pages
Format: pdf
Language: English
Relation: Ostrich
Relation: Hulley, P.E. and Craig, A.J., 2007. The status of the southern ground-hornbill in the Grahamstown region, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Ostrich-Journal of African Ornithology, 78(1), pp.89-92
Relation: Ostrich volume 78 number 1 89 92 2007 1727-947X
Rights: Publisher
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Taylor and Francis Online Terms and Conditions Statement (https://www.tandfonline.com/terms-and-conditions)

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Craig, Adrian JFK (Prof)

SDG 15. Life On Land

Hulley, Patrick Elliot (Assoc Prof Emeritus)

RU Department of Zoology and Entomology

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