Breeding Success of Cape Vultures (Gyps coprotheres) at Colonies in the Tswapong Hills, Botswana

Goikantswemang, Tsaone; Reading, Richard P.; Maude, Glyn; Selebatso, Moses; Hancock, Pete; Borello, Wendy D.; Borello, Remigio M.; Perkins, J. S.

doi:10.3356/jrr-20-80

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In South Africa, the aim is to establish 17.7 GW of installed capacity over the next decade, making wind energy one of the country's main alternatives to coal (IRP, 2019). South Africa also represents an important stronghold for the Cape Vulture Gyps coprothere s (Piper, 2005), which is endemic to southern Africa and has most of its population restricted to South Africa, Lesotho, and eastern Botswana (Oikantswemang et al, 2021; Piper, 2005). Currently, the population of this vulnerable species consists of 9600–12,800 mature individuals and has undergone severe declines since the 1990s (BirdLife International, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A utilization distribution for the global population of Cape Vultures (Gypscoprotheres) to guide wind energy development

Cervantes

Murgatroyd

Allan³

et al. 2023

Ecological Applications

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The rapid development of wind energy in southern Africa represents an additional threat to the already fragile populations of African vultures. The distribution of the vulnerable Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres overlaps considerably with wind energy development areas in South Africa, creating conflicts that can hinder both vulture conservation and sustainable energy development. To help address this conflict and aid in the safe placement of wind energy facilities, we map the utilization distribution (UD) of this species across its distributional range. Using tracking data from 68 Cape Vultures collected over the last 20 years, we develop a spatially explicit habitat use model to estimate the expected UDs around known colonies. Scaling the UDs by the number of vultures expected to use each of the colonies, we estimate the Cape Vulture population utilization distribution (PUD) and determine its exposure to wind farm impacts. To complement our results, we model the probability of a vulture flying within the rotor sweep area of a wind turbine throughout the species range and use this to identify areas that are particularly prone to collisions. Overall, our estimated PUD correlates well with reporting rates of the species from the Southern African Bird Atlas Project, currently used to assess potential overlap between Cape Vultures and wind energy developments, but it adds important benefits, such as providing a spatial gradient of activity estimates over the entire species range. We illustrate the application of our maps by analyzing the exposure of Cape Vultures in the Renewable Energy Development Zones (REDZs) in South Africa. This application is a scalable procedure that can be applied at different planning phases, from strategic, nationwide planning to project-level assessments.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%