Want to Help?

Start right @ home….

Be part of the ‘raptor-watch’ network. Start taking note of the birds of prey that live around you and tell us about any changes in their behaviour or other interesting observations. If you know of a nest site then please let us know about it, so that we can GPS the location and log them on the KZN Wildlife’s sensitive sites records.

 

The Hot Spots!

Landowners - Talk to you staff about the value of resident birds of prey. You can erect nest boxes for owls (see Fact File section) and perching places in cultivated fields for birds of prey to hunt from.
Landowners who feel that they have property that would be a suitable habitat to release rehabilitated raptors into, then tell us about yourselves! If you think that yours might be an ideal spot, then here’s how you double check:

1Are there already wild raptors (diurnal or nocturnal) living in your area? You do not want to create unnecessary competition for the raptors by having too many in one territory.

2Do your neighbours control rodents using poisons aggressively?
If owls eat poisoned rodents then they too will succumb to the poison. Chat to them!

 

Post Mortem

If, in your wanderings, you happen to come across a dead raptor:

1If you live close to Durban or Pietermaritzburg and the carcass is quite fresh, please keep it in a plastic bag and notify us of your find.

2See if you can establish the cause of death. (Is it lying next to a road, under a powerline or fence etc)

3Check the carcass for any numbered rings and contact the raptor rescue hotline with the info on that ring. The ringing of raptors is an important international research method of learning about a species’s movements and lifespan.

Wish List!

If , by any chance, you have the follow items at your disposal or maybe your have just upgraded your equipment and have your old item 'lying around', then please consider  donating them to us and we will put them to good use. Items  can be new or second-hand (preferably in working order please!)

Raptor Rescue Needs:

 

An X-ray machine

A microscope with a light source
A digital glucometer (measures blood glucose levels as a starvation indicator)
A lactometer (to determine fitness for release)

A small centrifuge:  for doing simple onsite blood-work and for determining an injured bird’s level of hydration.

Glass Fibre Recovery Boxes (We need a glass-fibre company to make up 4 boxes of international design)

Desktop PC for maintenance of records

Fridge and Freezer to keep food and a bar fridge for drugs

Washing machine and towels
High-pressure Cleaner

Security system

Plumbing materials -Water piping
Garden Maintenance Equipment
Fire Fighting Equipment and  Fire extinguishers

For the Raptor Rescue recovery enclosures:

                                              CCA Treated timber poles
                                              1.8m, 2.4m and 3m slats
                                              Roofing materials

A half–ton truck: Our private vehicles are used for all the call-outs to injured and ‘in trouble’ raptors and for doing the Vet Run (twice or three times a week) and the food run (twice a week) . A small dedicated vehicle would be invaluable to allow us to continue this work.

The Education Centre Needs:

Data Projector and Screen
Laptop
Flip Charts and white boards 

A printer-scanner-copier machine – Both printers at our offices are over seven years old and struggle to produce a printed document of any quality. When making worksheets for education work, we need to travel 20km into town to hire the services if a scanner and copier –indeed possible, but expensive and time consuming.

A Canon 400D – now this is a big wish, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to dream! We have a full range of professional canon lens at our disposal and a standard 35mm body, but would like to go digital and the 400D is a digital camera compatible with all the old pro. lenses. Many of the conditions or treatments seen on the sick and injured birds of prey are unknown. To photograph them digitally and send the images immediately to experts anywhere in the world would be to increase the chance of saving the raptor.

Got the time, Got the Money?
ORNITHOLOGIST : Phoebe Snetsinger (USA), 1931 -1999

When Snetsinger was diagnosed with life-threatening cancer in 1981, she decided to devote the rest of her time to seeing as many different kinds of birds as possible. Her quest took her to every corner of the world, from remote Arctic islands to tropical rain forests. Her trips were funded by the fortune she inherited from her father Leo Burnett, a wealthy businessman. In 1999, while on a birding trip to a remote region in Madagascar, she was killed instantly when her vehicle overturned. At the time of her death she had managed to see over 8500 species of bird – more than any other person in history!