Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T10:18:35.229Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Population growth rates in northern Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres colonies between 2010 and 2019

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2020

MARGARET T. HIRSCHAUER Open the ORCID record for MARGARET T. HIRSCHAUER [Opens in a new window] ,
KERRI WOLTER ,
ALEXANDRA HOWARD ,
BRIAN W. ROLEK  and
CHRISTOPHER J. W. MCCLURE
MARGARET T. HIRSCHAUER*
Affiliation:
VulPro NPO, P.O. Box 285 Skeerpoort, South Africa0232.
KERRI WOLTER
Affiliation:
VulPro NPO, P.O. Box 285 Skeerpoort, South Africa0232.
ALEXANDRA HOWARD
Affiliation:
VulPro NPO, P.O. Box 285 Skeerpoort, South Africa0232.
BRIAN W. ROLEK
Affiliation:
The Peregrine Fund, 5668 W. Flying Hawk Lane, Boise, IDUSA83709.
CHRISTOPHER J. W. MCCLURE
Affiliation:
The Peregrine Fund, 5668 W. Flying Hawk Lane, Boise, IDUSA83709. School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2001, South Africa.
*
*Author for correspondence; email: mhirscha@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The ‘Endangered’ Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres has been monitored across its range for decades through disparate studies varying in geographical scope and length. Yet, no long-term, range-wide survey exists for the species. Coordinated monitoring across the range of the Cape Vulture would be logistically challenging but provide a holistic view of population dynamics in this long-lived species that forages across much of southern Africa. Here, we report breeding pair counts from seven colonies in the Cape Vulture’s north-eastern breeding region from 2010 to 2019. We used state-space models to assess population growth across time. Manutsa, Soutpansberg, and Nooitgedacht colonies increased significantly over the study period, with three other colonies having positive estimates of population growth, but 95% credible intervals overlapped zero. The smallest colony at Moletjie is declining toward extirpation; only one breeding pair remained in 2019. Our results suggest the north-eastern population has been stable or increasing since 2010 with our 2019 surveys counting 2,241 breeding pairs across all sites. Indeed, there is an 89% chance that the population across the colonies we monitored increased from 2010 to 2019. Coordinated, range-wide, full-cycle monitoring is needed to thoroughly assess conservation status and efficacy of conservation actions taken for this endangered species.

Keywords

Cape VultureGyps coprotherespopulation growth ratestate-space modelscolony monitoringbreeding pairs
Type
Research Article
Information
Bird Conservation International , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 354 - 363
Copyright
© The Author(s) and VulPro, 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of BirdLife International

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allan, D. G. (2015) Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres . Pp. 174–178 in Taylor, M. R., Peacock, F. and Wanless, R. M., eds. The 2015 Eskom Red Data Book of Birds of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Johannesburg, South Africa: BirdLife South Africa.Google Scholar
Bamford, A. J., Diekmann, M., Monadjem, A. and Mendelsohn, J. (2007) Ranging behaviour of Cape Vultures Gyps coprotheres from an endangered population in Namibia. Bird Conserv. Internatn. 17: 331–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, P. C. (2015) A survey of Cape Vulture breeding colonies in South Africa’s northern provinces (Transvaal Region) – an update 2013. Ornithol. Observations 6: 31–36.Google Scholar
Benson, P. C. and McClure, C. J. W. (2020) The decline and rise of the Kransberg Cape Vulture colony over 35 years has implications for composite population indices and survey frequency. Ibis 162: 863–872.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, P. C., Tarboton, W. R., Allan, D. G. and Dobbs, J. C. (1990) The breeding status of the Cape Vulture in the Transvaal. Ostrich 61: 134–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BirdLife International (2019) Species factsheet: Gyps coprotheres. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 06 November 2019.Google Scholar
Boshoff, A. and Vernon, C. J. (1980) The past and present distribution and status of the Cape Vulture in the Cape Province. Ostrich 51: 230–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boshoff, A., Piper, S. and Michael, M. (2009) On the distribution and breeding status of the Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. Ostrich 80: 85–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boshoff, A. F., Minnie, J. C., Tambling, C. J. and Michael, M. D. (2011) The impact of power line-related mortality on the Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres in a part of its range, with an emphasis on electrocution. Bird Conserv. Internatn. 21: 311–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buechley, E. R. and Şekercioğlu, Ç. H. (2016) The avian scavenger crisis: Looming extinctions, trophic cascades, and loss of critical ecosystem functions. Biol. Conserv. 198: 220–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brink, C. W., Santangeli, A., Amar, A., Wolter, K., Tate, G., Krüger, S., Tucker, A. S., and Thomson, R. L. (2020) Quantifying the spatial distribution and trends of supplementary feeding sites in South Africa and their potential contribution to vulture energetic requirements. Anim. Conserv. DOI: 10.1111/acv.12561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cape Vulture (Gyps coprotheres) breeding monitoring protocols (2018) Downloaded from http://www.vulpro.com/publications on 06 November 2019.Google Scholar
Franke, A., McIntyre, C.L. and Steenhof, K. (2017) Terminology. Pp. 33–42 in Anderson, D. L., McClure, C. J. W. and Franke, A., eds. Applied raptor ecology: essentials from Gyrfalcon research. Boise, Idaho, USA: The Peregrine Fund.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelman, A. and Rubin, D. (1992) Inference from iterative simulation using multiple sequences. Statist. Sci. 7: 457–472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirschauer, M. T., Wolter, K., Green, R. E. and Galligan, T. H. (2017) Immature Cape Vulture (Gyps coprotheres) breaks species range record. Biodivers. Observ. 8: 1–4.Google Scholar
Hirschauer, M. T., Wolter, K. and Neser, W. (2016) Natal philopatry in young Cape Vultures (Gyps coprotheres). Ostrich 88: 79–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kane, A., Wolter, K., Neser, W., Kotze, A., Naidoo, V. and Monadjem, A. (2016) Home range and habitat selection of Cape Vultures Gyps coprotheres in relation to supplementary feeding. Bird Study 63: 387–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kellner, K. (2016) jagsUI: A Wrapper Around “rjags” to Streamline “JAGS” Analyses. R package version 1.4.2. Downloaded from https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=jagsUI.Google Scholar
Kéry, M. and Schaub, M. (2012) Bayesian population analysis using WinBUGS: A hierarchical perspective. Elsevier, London, UK: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kleinhans, C. and Willows-Munro, S. (2019) Low genetic diversity and shallow population structure in the endangered vulture, Gyps coprotheres. Scientific Reports 9: 5536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Margalida, A., Colomer, M. À. and Sanuy, D. (2011) Can wild ungulate carcasses provide enough biomass to maintain avian scavenger populations? An empirical assessment using a bio-inspired computational model. PloS ONE 6(5): e20248.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Margalida, A., Donazar, J. A., Carrete, M. and Sánchez‐Zapata, J. A. (2010) Sanitary versus environmental policies: fitting together two pieces of the puzzle of European vulture conservation. J. Appl. Ecol. 47: 931–935.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margalida, A., Ogada, D. and Botha, A. (2019) Protect African vultures from poison. Science 365: 1089–1090.Google ScholarPubMed
McClure, C. J. W., Westrip, J. R. S., Johnson, J. A., Schulwitz, S. E., Virani, M. Z., Davies, R., Symes, A., Wheatley, H., Thorstrom, R., Amar, A., Buij, R., Jones, V. R., Williams, N. P., Buechley, E. R. and Butchart, S. H. M. (2018) State of the world’s raptors: Distributions, threats, and conservation recommendations. Biol. Conserv. 227: 390–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKean, S., Mander, M., Diederichs, N., Ntuli, L., Mavundla, K., Williams, V. and Wakelin, J. (2013) The impact of traditional use on vultures in South Africa. Vulture News 65: 15–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monadjem, A. and Garcelon, D. K. (2005) Nesting distribution of vultures in relation to land use in Swaziland. Biodivers. Conserv. 14: 2079–2093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monadjem, A., Kane, A., Botha, A., Kelly, C. and Murn, C. (2018) Spatially explicit poisoning risk affects survival rates of an obligate scavenger. Scientific Reports 8: 4364.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mundy, P. J., Benson, P. C., and Allan, D. G. (1997) Cape Vulture Kransaasvoël Gyps coprotheres . Pp. 158–159 in The atlas of southern African birds, Volume 1. Johannesburg: BirdLife South Africa.Google Scholar
Murn, C. and Botha, A. (2018) A clear and present danger: impacts of poisoning on a vulture population and the effect of poison response activities. Oryx 52: 552–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogada, D. L. and Buij, R. (2011) Large declines of the Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes monachus across its African range. Ostrich 82: 101–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogada, D. L., Keesing, F. and Virani, M. Z. (2012a) Dropping dead: causes and consequences of vulture population declines worldwide. Ann. New York Ac. Sci. 1249: 57–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogada, D. L., Torchini, M. E., Kinnaird, M. F. and Ezenwa, V. O. (2012b) Effects of vulture declines on facultative scavengers and potential implications for mammalian disease transmission. Conserv. Biol. 26: 453–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogada, D., Shaw, P., Beyers, R. L., Buij, R., Murn, C., Thiollay, J. M., Beale, C. M., Holdo, R. M., Pomeroy, D., Baker, N., Krüger, S. C., Botha, A., Virani, M. Z., Monadjem, A. and Sinclair, A. R. E. (2015) Another continental vulture crisis: Africa’s vultures collapsing toward extinction. Conserv. Lett. 9: 89–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pain, D. J., Bowden, C. G. R., Cunningham, A. A., Cuthbert, R., Das, D., Gilbert, M., Jakati, R. D., Jhala, Y., Khan, A. A., Naidoo, V., Oaks, J. L., Parry-Jones, J., Prakash, V., Rahmani, A., Ranade, S. P., Baral, H. S., Senacha, K. R., Saravanan, S., Shah, N., Swan, G., Swarup, D., Taggart, M. A., Watcon, R. T., Virani, M. Z., Wolter, K. and Green, R. (2008) The race to prevent the extinction of South Asian vultures. Bird Conserv. Internatn. 18: S30–S48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pain, D. J., Cunningham, A. A., Donald, P. F., Duckworth, J. W., Houston, D. C., Katzner, T., Parry-Jones, J., Poole, C., Prakash, V., Round, A. and Timmins, R. (2003) Causes and effects of temporospatial declines of Gyps vultures in Asia. Conserv. Biol. 17: 661–671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, V. (1994) Swaziland bird atlas, 1985-1991. Mbabane, Swaziland: Websters.Google Scholar
Pfeiffer, M. B., Venter, J. A. and Downs, C. T. (2015a) Identifying anthropogenic threats to Cape Vultures Gyps coprotheres using community perceptions in communal farmland, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Bird Conserv. Internatn. 25: 353–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfeiffer, M. B., Venter, J. A. and Downs, C. T. (2015b) Foraging range and habitat use by Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres from the Msikaba colony, Eastern Cape province, South Africa. Koedoe 57: 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phipps, W. L., Diekmann, M., MacTavish, L. M., Mendelsohn, J. M., Naidoo, V., Wolter, K. and Yarnell, R. W. (2017) Due South: A first assessment of the potential impacts of climate change on Cape vulture occurrence. Biol. Conserv. 210: 16–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phipps, L., Wolter, K., Michael, M. D., MacTavish, L. M. and Yarnell, R. W. (2013) Do power lines and protected areas present a catch-22 situation for Cape Vultures (Gyps coprotheres)? PLoS ONE 8(10): e76794.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piper, S. E. (1994) Mathematical demography of the Cape Vulture. Doctoral dissertation. The University of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Plummer, M. (2003) JAGS: A program for analysis of Bayesian graphical models using Gibbs sampling. Proceedings of the 3rd international workshop on distributed statistical computing 124: 1–10.Google Scholar
R Core Team. (2017) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistiucal Computing.Google Scholar
Robertson, A. (1983) Known age Cape vulture breeding in the wild. Ostrich 54: 179.Google Scholar
Rushworth, I. and Krüger, S. (2014) Wind farms threaten South Africa’s cliff-nesting vultures. Ostrich 85: 13–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rushworth, I. A. and Piper, S. E. (2004) Status and conservation of vultures in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Pp 87–95 in Monadjem, A., Anderson, M. D., Piper, S. E. and Boshoff, A. F., eds. The Vultures of Southern Africa – Quo Vadis? Proceedings of a workshop on vulture research and conservation in southern Africa. Johannesburg, South Africa: Birds of Prey Working Group.Google Scholar
Schabo, D. G., Heuner, A., Neethling, M. V., Rosner, S., Uys, R. and Farwig, N. (2017) Long-term data indicates that supplementary food enhances the number of breeding pairs in a Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres colony. Bird Conserv. Internatn. 27: 140–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, R. E. and Jenkins, A. R. (2007) Is climate change influencing the decline of Cape and Bearded Vultures in southern Africa? Vulture News 56: 41–51.Google Scholar
The Peregrine Fund (2020) JAGS-model.R. GitHub repository: https://github.com/The-Peregrine-Fund/Southern-Africa-Vultures/blob/master/JAGS-model.R Google Scholar
van Rooyen, C. (2004) Report on vulture interactions with powerlines in southern Africa: 1996–2003. Pp 182–194 in Monadjem, A., Anderson, M. D., Piper, S. E. and Boshoff, A. F., eds. The Vultures of Southern Africa – Quo Vadis? Proceedings of a workshop on vulture research and conservation in southern Africa. Johannesburg, South Africa: Birds of Prey Working Group.Google Scholar
Williams, V. L. and Whiting, M. J. (2016) A picture of health? Animal use and the Faraday traditional medicine market, South Africa. J. Ethnopharmacol. 179: 265–273.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, V. L., Cunningham, A. B., Kemp, A. C. and Bruyns, R. K. (2014) Risks to birds traded for African traditional medicine: a quantitative assessment. PloS ONE 9(8): e105397.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wolter, K., Neser, W., Diekmann, M. and Verdoorn, G. (2014) South African Cape Vulture released in Namibia is back in South Africa. Afring News 43: 21–22.Google Scholar
Wolter, K., Neser, W., Hirschauer, M. T. and Camiña, A. (2016) Cape Vulture (Gyps coprotheres) breeding status in southern Africa: monitoring results from 2010 – 2014. Ostrich 87: 119–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Hirschauer et al. supplementary material

Hirschauer et al. supplementary material

Download Hirschauer et al. supplementary material(File)
File 247.5 KB