Kirsten Wimberger

Wild Bird Trust · Cape Parrot Project

The global loss of biodiversity paired with the shortcomings of protected areas highlights the need to improve the conservation potential of human-modified lands. Although often referred to as “ecological deserts”, large spatial scales and long rotation periods make tree plantations a relatively stable and permeable environment that could provide a...

The Amathole forest complex is the breeding stronghold of the endemic and vulnerable Cape Parrot Poicephalus robustus , and is also one of only two forest complexes in South Africa formally harvested for timber. The aim of this study was to determine if formal harvesting of indigenous trees, primarily the two yellowwood species Afrocarpus falcatus...

The success of conservation action for a threatened species can be improved by knowledge of its feeding and breeding requirements. The Cape Parrot Poicephalus robustus is a threatened endemic restricted to patches of mistbelt forest in South Africa. Cape Parrots are considered dietary specialists, preferring the kernels of yellowwood Podocarpus/Afr...

Psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD) is one of the most important viral diseases affecting parrot species worldwide. Outbreaks of PBFD have been reported in wild endemic and endangered South African Cape Parrots (Poicephalus robustus), most recently in 2008. A previous study of wild Cape Parrots in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa in 2...

Cape Parrots Poicephalus robustus are endemic to South Africa where they typically occur in high-altitude Mistbelt forests. They are listed as Vulnerable internationally with habitat loss being the primary threat to the species. They nest in natural tree hollows in large forest hardwoods which were the target of historical, exploitative harvesting,...

The Amathole mistbelt forests in the Eastern Cape, South Africa harbour the largest remnant population of the nationally endangered endemic Cape Parrot Poicephalus robustus, a secondary-cavity nester whose persistence is limited by suitable nest sites. These are also the only forests within Cape Parrot range in which selective timber harvesting rem...

Cape Parrots Poicephalus robustus inhabit forest patches in South Africa with <1 800 individuals remain in the wild. A small, genetically isolated population occurs in the northern part of its range in the Limpopo province. There, annual counts indicated ∼100 remain, but count numbers fluctuate substantially between years creating uncertainty over...

A new Action Plan developed for the Cape Parrot and its habitat.

The status of the Cape Parrot Poicephalus robustus was re-assessed in 2017 by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) following the recent split from the Brown-necked Parrot P. fuscicollis (subspecies suahelicus and fuscicollis; Coetzer et al. 2015, Collar & Fishpool 2017). The Cape Parrot is endemic to South Africa and is lis...

The non-invasive monitoring of physiological stress can provide conservation and wildlife managers with an invaluable tool for assessing animal welfare and psychological health of captive and free-ranging populations. A significant decrease in free-ranging primate populations globally and an increase in captive-housed primates have led to a need to...

Breeding propensity of tree-cavity nesting bird species are often limited by a shortage of natural nesting sites. Artificial nests can be used to provide alternative nest sites. Cape Parrots Poicephalus robustus are nationally endangered and nest in existing tree-cavities in high-altitude fragmented Afromontane forests in South Africa, assumed to b...

Worldwide, parrots are most vulnerable to attack when congregating around feeding and drinking sites. Flocking is a way of minimising vulnerability to predation, but can increase predation risk when flocks are unusually large and conspicuous. The Cape Parrot Poicephalus robustus is endemic to South Africa and is listed as endangered, with an estima...

Wild species use habitats that vary in risk across space and time. This risk can derive from natural predators and also from direct and indirect human pressures. A starving forager will often take risks that a less hungry forager would not. At a highly seasonal and human-modified site, we predicted that arboreal samango monkeys (Cercopithecus albog...

Understanding how threatened species adapt their behavior to landscapes shaped by humans is increasingly important to ensuring they persist in a changing world. Matrix habitats can be shared spaces where human and nonhuman primates coexist. We set out to determine how an endemic, threatened forest specialist, the frugivorous, arboreal samango monke...

Assessment rationale: Samango Monkeys are restricted to a variety of forest habitats and comprise three subspecies within the assessment region: Samango Monkey (C. a. labiatus), Stair’s White-collared monkey (C. a. erythrarchus), and Schwarz’s White-collared Monkey (C. a. schwarzi). While C. a. labiatus is endemic to the assessment region, C. a. e...

A fundamental step in the management and conservation of wild species is advancing our understanding of how animals perceive and use their habitat. Spatial variation in risk either from natural predation or human disturbance generates a “landscape of fear” that can be measured and assessed using experimental patch approaches such as giving-up densi...

These giving-up density experiments were run between May and August 2013 (Lajuma) and May and July 2014 (Hogsback).

The samango monkey is South Africa's only exclusively forest dwelling primate and represents the southernmost extent of the range of arboreal guenons in Africa. The main threats to South Africa's forests and thus to the samango are linked to increasing land-use pressure and increasing demands for forest resources, resulting in deforestation, degrad...

The samango monkey is South Africa's only exclusively forest dwelling primate and represents the southernmost extent of the range of arboreal guenons in Africa. The main threats to South Africa's forests and thus to the samango are linked to increasing land-use pressure and increasing demands for forest resources, resulting in deforestation, degrad...

Huddling is a behavioural energy conservation mechanism that is widely used by many small endotherms at low ambient temperatures. Huddling has many bene-fits, including decreasing the metabolic cost of maintaining body temperature (Tb), reducing the amount of heat lost to the environment, and increasing the local temperature of the nest. To test th...

Huddling is a behavioural energy conservation mechanism that is widely used by many small endotherms at low ambient temperatures. Huddling has many benefits, including decreasing the metabolic cost of maintaining body temperature (Tb), reducing the amount of heat lost to the environment, and increasing the local temperature of the nest. To test the...

The release of tortoises after confinement and treatment in rehabilitation centres includes the risk that released individuals may infect wild conspecifics with foreign parasites and other pathogens. The recent monitoring of the release of rehabilitated leopard tortoises (Stigmochelys pardalis) onto private land in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Afr...

The focus of wildlife rehabilitation is the survival of the individual animal, often leading to rehabilitators being in conflict with government wildlife officials, who regulate the industry and whose focus is on the security of entire wildlife communities. In South Africa, wildlife rehabilitation has been the focus of recent attention from the gen...

Each year, worldwide, large numbers of wild animals are taken to rehabilitation centres for treatment, care and release. Although analysis of intake records may provide valuable insight into the threats and impacts to wildlife, there are few such published reports. Four years of intake records from a large urban rehabilitation centre in South Afric...

In South Africa, the most common primate in rehabilitation centres is the vervet monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops). Here we evaluated the efficacy of releasing two vervet monkey troops into the wild, using the standard methods employed by an established rehabilitation centre. Two troops were assembled over 2-3 years. Coloured ear tags identified adults...

Babcock's leopard tortoises (Stigmochelys pardalis babcocki) are taken to rehabilitation centers in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, because they are either escaped, unwanted, or confiscated pets, or else are confiscated from persons who acquire them illegally from the wild. South African rehabilitation centers are reluctant to euthanize torto...

Rock hyraxes (Procavia capensis) are categorized as ?Least Concern? in the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In South Africa they were once listed as vermin in the old Cape Province due to their high population numbers and Impact on grazing. However, about 10 years ago, populations in the KwaZulu-Natal province became locally extinct. This...