Conservation Conversations: Southern Bald Ibis - Carina Pienaar (16Aug22)

The Southern Bald Ibis is an endemic species to the grasslands of South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini and is currently listed as globally Vulnerable under the IUCN Red list. South Africa forms the core of this species’ range, with breeding strongholds occurring in KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Mpumalanga. Monitoring of the Southern Bald Ibis population has been one of BirdLife South Africa’s focus areas since at least 2008 with the employment of a full time Southern Bald Ibis project manager until 2013, after which monitoring continued on an ad-hoc basis. In 2017, BirdLife South Africa picked up the reigns once more with a more formalised monitoring project involving citizen scientists and members of the organisation to monitor annual breeding of the species across their distribution. The aims of the current project are to assess the current status of Southern Bald Ibis breeding colonies across South Africa and Lesotho, identify potential unknown/under-surveyed breeding sites, monitor changes in colony size and breeding success over time, and determine what proportion of breeding colonies and available habitat fall under formal protection. A tracking study was also launched giving insights into habitat use of the species. Carina will discuss some preliminary results from the monitoring completed in the past few years, as well as the implications thereof on the improved understanding and conservation of this Vulnerable endemic species.