VOLUNTEER FROM CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN ZOO, USA

Jenyva Turner joined the Project for three weeks.

Jenyva was a great help in observing the birds at the Project as well as at Loskop Dam Nature Reserve. The information she gathered will  further our understanding of the behavior of  this very complicated species.

VOLUNTEER FROM CHESTER

Lara Jordan from Chester Zoo in the UK came to help the Project with the hand rearing this year. Lara has vast experience in incubation and hand rearing and the project benefited from her knowledge and input. We would like to thank Lara and Chester for supporting us in our never ending quest to save this species.

UMGENI RIVER BIRD PARK

Once again Umgeni has kindly donated some of their captive bred chicks to the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project. The chicks were brought to Mabula on the 31st of October 2006, where they were hand reared and released onto the reserve to join our free roaming group.

A SUMMER OF SOUTHERNS

Jane Finch from Cricket St. Thomas Wildlife Park in England wrote a touching story of her trials and tribulations rearing Ground Hornbill chicks.

Click here to read this most interesting story...

PUPPETS

In November 2005, Michael Mace, Curator of Birds, from the San Diego Wild Animal Park, donated two Ground Hornbill Puppets to the Project.

Similar puppets have been used to raise condor chicks, in California, for release.

The puppets are used  to feed the chicks that

are hand-reared by the project, so as to prevent habituation to humans.

 

GIS MAPPING

The project has put together all the data that has been received over the past seven years to form a comprehensive GIS map of the population of Southern Ground Hornbills in South Africa. You can view this map by clicking on the distribution map button.

NEST CAMERAS

Leeds Castle Zoo as well as the Aviary Society UK have donated nest cameras to the project. These cameras will be placed in artificial nests to help us discover more about what interaction there is in ground hornbill nests.

ARTIFICIAL NESTS IN LIMPOPO PROVINCE

During August 2006, Nick and Jason from the Mabula Project put up many artificial nests in the Limpopo Province. We are aiming at providing groups in this area with suitable nests for the upcoming breeding season.

INSTROTECH GOES GREEN

Dave Howcroft of Insrotech joined Nick Theron, Ground Hornbill Project Field Officer, during the nest checks in the Kruger National Park and Limpopo Province. Uncle Dave, as he is fondly known to the Project staff was not put off by the challenges of high trees, extreme heat and early mornings and took the bull by the horns or rather the bird by the beak and partook in every aspect of the nest check. The Project would like to thank Insrotech for their sponsorship and support.

                                                                     ELANDSBERG CONSERVANCY

                                                    The Mabula Ground Hornbill Project is attempting a re-introduction of Southern

                                                    Ground Hornbills (SGH) onto a nature conservancy in the Warmbaths (Bela-Bela)

                                                    district of the Limpopo Province. The conservancy is made up of a number of

                                                    separate farms, most of which were previously farmed with cattle. Fences are still

                                                    being dropped and the conservancy is still in a stage of development. 

                                                    Elandsberg is divided into a northern and southern section by a main dirt road. The

                                                    southern section where the release site is currently situated stands at 12 000 ha

                                                    with the projected size of the conservancy being in the vicinity of 40 000 ha. Nick,

                                                    Rina and Charles have put up a semi-permanent campsite at the release site and

                                                    hope to develop it into a more permanent release and research camp in the near

                                                    future.

The reserve is an ideal location for the development of a second SGH group in the area due to its size, conservation objectives and a very low density of people present on the reserve, especially the southern section. It is envisioned that a second core group successfully established will eventually facilitate the natural dispersal of SGH’s in the area.

 

 LUMWANA, NORTH WEST ZAMBIA

The Project was contacted by Elna who lives in Lumwana. Her husband found a juvenile ground hornbill next to the road, very weak and unable to walk. There are no vets in the area and it was close to impossible to travel “Brompie” far , so Pierre decided to take the bird home to Elna. After a few days of rest and feeding, the young bird’s condition improved greatly. On the 20th of May 2007, Elna heard his group calling nearby the house and decided to release “Brompie” to rejoin his group.

The Project would like to commend Elna on all her effort to get “Brompie” back into the wild.

You can read her story at bosvrou.blogspot.com

LESSONS LEARNT AT CHESTER ZOO

In June 2007 Dee de Waal, handrearer for the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project, went to Chester Zoo in the UK. Chester kindly invited Dee to spend the month with them working in their bird incubation and handrearing unit.

“It was truly an experience I will never forget and has helped me improve my knowledge of incubation and handrearing.”

A BIG thank you to Chester and especially Lara Jordan for giving Dee this opportunity.

Jane Finch and Christine Giononne

Jane and Christine joined the Project during this year’s hand rearing season, to assist in the difficult process of hand rearing Southern ground hornbill chicks.

The skills and knowledge both these hand rearers contributed to the Project is truly invaluable.

The Project would like to thank both Cricket St Thomas (UK) and Sea World Busch Gardens (USA) for sending Jane and Christine.

Review of the PHVA

An Action Group meeting was held on the 14th of May 2008 at the Johannesburg Zoo. This meeting focused on reviewing the Ground Hornbill PHVA that was held in Feb 2005. Click here to read the review.

Drawing blood from Ground Hornbills

Dr Paul Bartels showed the Project staff how to take blood and prepare samples for testing. Ground hornbills are notoriously difficult to draw blood from as their dark skin colour makes it almost impossible to see the veins under their wings. A vein in the leg was used with great success. The Project would like to thank Paul for teaching us how to safely collect, handle and store these samples..

 

Acquiring new skills

Quentin Hagens and Andre Botha visited Mabula to teach the Project staff how

to measure and ring Southern ground hornbills.

We would like to thank them both for generously giving their time and skills.

Sightings of juveniles needed

In order to better understand the population dynamics and productivity of the species it is important to determine which groups are breeding and where. Because males and females are difficult to distinguish in the wild and nests are extremely difficult to find, juveniles are a good indicator of breeding groups. We appeal to all who have sightings of SGH to try to determine whether juveniles are present in groups as well as to record a location as well as the numbers of birds in the group. You can click here to read more about this.