Thunderbirds: The role of climate and cooperation in Southern Ground-Hornbills
Thunderbirds: The role of climate and cooperation in Southern Ground-Hornbills
Southern Ground-Hornbills are one of Africa’s most iconic savanna bird species and the largest cooperatively breeding bird in the world. For the past 21 years, students from the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town have been at the forefront of researching this endangered species, contributing towards conservation efforts. The project, otherwise known as the APNR Ground-Hornbill Project, has uncovered a great deal about their breeding habits, movements, predation, and dispersal over the years. Over the past 5 years though, Kyle-Mark Middleton and Carrie Hickman have been heading up the project where they have been investigating the secret lives of the birds using camera traps.
Kyle’s research has been investigating how the different individuals within each group contribute towards groups behaviours which are vital for survival, and how that translates into group persistence and success. Carrie’s research on the other hand, is looking at how high temperatures might affect the nestling’s growth and physiology within the nests and what this may mean for the birds in a warming climate. Join us for this webinar where Kyle will be talking specifically about ground-hornbill reproduction and territory defence and Carrie will talk about how temperature plays a role in the lives of these fascinating birds.
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K
yle-Mark Middleton and Carrie Hickman are students (PhD and MSc, respectively) at the FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town. Kyle and Carrie both completed their undergraduate degrees in Environmental Science and after working in the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve for a few years they were introduced to the APNR Ground-Hornbill Project where their interest in these amazing birds began. The timing could not have been better as the project needed someone to take over the field duties to manage the conservation side of the project. Kyle jumped at the opportunity which has since led him to pursue his PhD research and Carrie followed suit shortly afterwards. Together they now oversee the project and work with other researchers and conservationists around the country, as part of the Ground-Hornbill Working Group, in an effort to slow and reverse the decline in the species.