Research Projects

The African Bird of Prey Sanctuary will assist, were possible, in any bona fide program or research that is beneficial to the long term conservation of raptors. The facility also serves as a biological and genetic bank of southern African birds of prey. All birds that are utilized in the conservation breeding programs are either captive bred or non-releasable rehabilitation birds.

Post Rehabilitation Release

So far we have put radio telemetry on an African Fish Eagle, Lanner Falcons, Peregrine Falcons, Grass Owls, Spotted Eagle Owls, and White Faced Owls, to monitor post release survival. This season (2008-2009) Tammy Caine will be doing some more work on Southern white-faced scops owls’ survival post release.
Whilst this tracking work provides us with great information on our release methods, it has proved difficult to find suitable candidates to carry out the radio tracking. This takes a minimum of two to three hours a day, for two to three months. We hope, when funding is available, to progress to putting satellite tracking devices on selected species to be released.

Current projects:

1 To determine whether leg colour and length of crest in Long-crested eagles, (Lophaetus occipitalis) can be used as a guide to gender. Raptor Rescue sees a number of Long-crested eagles every year. Prior to release, all birds will be photographed, measured and surgically, as well as DNA, sexed. This information will then used to determine any correlation between leg colour, length of crest and sex.

2 Using blood lactate levels as an indicator of fitness in rehabilitation raptors is a much larger project that we are beginning to research. This will be based on work carried out by Holz, Naisbitt, and Mansell on a selection of Australian species, where blood lactate levels were measured prior to an exercise regime and after the exercise session. This data was then compared with post-release survival. This study proved that the fitness of rehabilitated raptors prior to release is vital to the success of the rehabilitation process. Continuing this research it is hoped to develop standard exercise protocols for the rehabilitation Southern African birds of prey.

3 With Mark Brown, from the University Of KwaZulu-Natal, we are studying metabolic and food conversion rates in Spotted eagle-owls. Together we are also using data loggers implanted in false eggs to look at incubation temperatures, in captive birds.

4 On going research data is being recorded for the:
                       -Captive management and breeding of Taita Falcons
                          -Growth Rates in Selected African raptors.
       

Completed Research projects:

1 The Global Owl Project, headed up by Dr. David H Johnson, is collecting DNA-samples of all species of owls worldwide. The centre provided him with bloods from Barn Owls, Grass Owls, Southern White-faced Scops Owls, African Wood Owls,  Marsh Owls, Spotted Eagle Owls, and Cape Eagle Owls.

2 A similar international project is underway with diurnal birds of prey. This is headed in KwaZulu-Natal by David Allen from the Durban Natural Science Museum. The centre provided bloods from seven eagle species, 5 short-wing species, yellow-billed kites, Jackal Buzzard and Cuckoo Hawk
               

3 ABOPS collaborated with Prof Steven Piper, then of the University of Natal, in an ESCOM / EWT strategic partnership. We provided the birds and assisted with ‘streamer’ research where the electrical conductivity of vulture faeces was measured. The distance that a vulture can project its faeces is also being recorded, to help understand how vultures get electrocuted on power lines.

4 We have worked with Dr Dennis York of Molecular Diagnostic Services to validate their DNA sexing test for Owls.

5 Janet Edwards, through the University of Kwazulu-Natal, tracked a group of Grass Owls post-release to determine habitat preference and survival rates.

6 We also worked with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, together with the Vulture Study Group, De Wildt, and Onderstepoort confirming the effects the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug Diclofenec on vultures. This drug has been implicated in the deaths of millions of Asian White-backed vultures, as well as a 90% decline in the population of both the Long-billed and Slender-billed Vultures in Asia.
 
7 Owls were made available for Ben Smit’s work on thermoregulatory responses in seasonally acclimatized captive Southern White-faced Scops-owls (Published in the Journal of Thermal Biology 33)

8 The Sanctuary provided Natassja Bush captive-bred Rock Kestrels for her study of phenotypic plasticity in thermoregulatory responses of the Rock Kestrel, Part A, and Part B and the effects of short-term acclimation on the metabolic rate in the Rock Kestrel. Both papers have been accepted for publication.

So little time.......
One man’s lifetime is not long enough to learn about eagles, and I wish that when I was younger that I had had the money and the freedom form earning a living that would have let me spend all my days in this pursuit.

                                                the late Dr Lesley Brown