Grassland to Urban Forest in 150 Years: Avifaunal Response in an African Metropolis

Symes, Craig T.; Roller, Kathryn; Howes, Caroline; Lockwood, Geoffrey; Rensburg, Berndt J. van

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-43314-1_16

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…Johannesburg is located in the grassland biome, but was also shown to support populations of Accipiter hawks (Table 3) that associate with woodlands and forests, such as Ovambo Sparrowhawk Accipiter ovampensis, Black Sparrowhawk, and Little Sparrowhawk Accipiter minullus. Johannesburg is often cited as the largest synthetic urban forest, with ~10 million trees (Symes et al 2017;Jombo et al 2020).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

South African raptors in urban landscapes: a review

McPherson

Sumasgutner

Downs

2021

Ostrich

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Globally, but especially in Africa, increasing human populations and anthropogenic land-use change are generally affecting diversity negatively. Urban environments in southern Africa typically comprise a mosaic landscape of anthropogenic infrastructure with some green spaces. These urban cities have a range of fauna that have persisted or increased in population density compared with areas that are more natural. We analysed the occurrence of diurnal and nocturnal raptors using South African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2) data and reviewed literature. We found 66 raptor species occurred in South African cities. Thirty species had reporting frequencies greater than 10% in at least one of the 11 cities assessed, revealing impressive diversity of the raptor clade in South African cities. Five species were both abundant and widespread, occurring >10% in five or more cities each, of which three belong to the scavenger guild: Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus, African Fish Eagle Haliaeetus vocifer, Common Buzzard Buteo buteo vulpinus, Yellow-billed Kite Milvus aegyptius and Black Sparrowhawk Accipiter melanoleucus. However, only a few of these 66 raptors had been extensively studied in urban areas: the Black Sparrowhawk, African Crowned Eagle Stephanoaetus coronatus, Lanner Falcon Falco biarmicus and Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus. This lack of research is specifically severe, given that Africa is hosting a unique and diverse range of raptor species and that numbers and diversity of raptors have declined dramatically over the past decades across the continent. In fact, these four extensively studied species occurred in higher densities in urban areas than rural areas, which indicates that urban areas might create valuable opportunities for urban conservation, not least through public engagement. Rapaces sud-africains dans les paysages urbains: un bilanÀ l›échelle mondiale, mais surtout en Afrique, l›augmentation des populations humaines et les changements anthropiques d›utilisation des terres ont généralement un impact négatif sur la diversité. Les environnements urbains en Afrique australe comprennent généralement un paysage en mosaïque d›infrastructures anthropiques avec quelques espaces verts. Ces villes urbaines ont une diversité de faune qui a persisté ou a augmenté en densité de population par rapport aux zones plus naturelles. Nous avons analysé l›occurrence des rapaces diurnes et nocturnes à l›aide des données du South African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2) et examiné la littérature. Nous avons trouvé 66 espèces de rapaces présentes dans les villes sud-africaines. Trente espèces avaient des fréquences de déclaration supérieures à 10% dans au moins l'une des 11 villes évaluées, révélant une diversité impressionnante du clade des rapaces dans les villes sud-africaines. Cinq espèces étaient à la fois abondantes et répandues, présentes> 10% dans cinq villes ou plus chacune, dont trois appartiennent à la guilde des charognards: l'Elanion blanc Elanus caeruleus, le Pygargue vocifer Haliaeetus vocifer, la Buse commune Bu...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

South African raptors in urban landscapes: a review

McPherson

Sumasgutner

Downs

2021

Ostrich

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“…The Black Rat (Rattus rattus) was probably introduced accidentally by Arab traders moving down the east coast, with subsequent additional undocumented arrivals (Brooke et al 1986) Urbanisation in Johannesburg and the Gauteng metropolis has transformed large tracts of grassland to urban woodland over the past 150 years. This has resulted in a positive relationship between the number of invasive species, the proportion of transformed land and the land-use heterogeneity index, as well as a shift in local species composition (Symes et al 2017). For example, the distribution and population densities of the Common Myna Sturnus tristis, independently introduced to South Africa on at least two occasions since the late nineteenth century, are closely tied to that of people and are associated with highly transformed land (Peacock et al 2007).…”

Section: Vertebratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological Invasions in South Africa’s Urban Ecosystems: Patterns, Processes, Impacts, and Management

Potgieter

Douwes

Gaertner

et al. 2020

Biological Invasions in South Africa

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As in other parts of the world, urban ecosystems in South Africa have large numbers of alien species, many of which are invasive. Whereas invasions in South Africa's natural systems are strongly structured by biotic and abiotic features of the region's biomes, the imprint of these features is much less marked in urban ecosystems that exist as islands of human-dominated and highly modified habitat. Surprisingly little work has been done to document how invasive species spread in South African urban ecosystems, affect biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being, or to document the human perceptions of alien and invasive species, and the challenges associated with managing invasions in cities. This chapter reviews the current knowledge of patterns, processes, impacts and management of invasions in South African urban ecosystems. It highlights unique aspects of invasion dynamics in South African urban ecosystems, and identifies priorities for research, and key

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“…In addition to the above limitations, we have also not assessed the large‐scale alteration of habitat and change in climate in southern Africa during this period (Buitenwerf, Bond, Stevens, & Trollope, ). Many of the areas that honey buzzards frequent in the subregion are urban areas that have experienced increased afforestation, for example the Cape Peninsula, Gauteng province and Windhoek, Namibia (Hockey & Midgley, ; Hockey, Sirami, Ridley, Midgley, & Babiker, ; Symes, Roller, Howes, Lockwood, & van Rensburg, ). These forested habitats may be attracting or supporting a larger population of European honey buzzard than was possible in previous decades.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of large‐scale range shift in the distribution of a Palaearctic migrant in Africa

Howes

Symes

Byholm

2019

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim Long‐distance Palaearctic migrant birds are declining at a faster rate than short‐distance migrant or resident species. This is often attributed to changes on their non‐breeding grounds and along their migratory routes. The European honey buzzard (Pernis apivorus) is a scarce migrant in southern Africa that is declining globally. This study assessed the distribution and abundance of honey buzzards in southern Africa over the past four decades and compared it to trends in the East African population to examine possible drivers of population expansion in southern Africa. Location Southern and East Africa. Methods European honey buzzard reporting data were collected from a variety of sources including citizen science databases (1983–2017). In addition, records of all other southern African vagrants (including ten other regularly occurring species) were gathered to account for changes in birdwatching effort in the subregion. To assess the effect of forest loss on honey buzzard abundance, rolling correlations were performed using forest cover in East Africa and number of honey buzzard records in both subregions. Results European honey buzzard records in southern Africa have increased over five times more than other regularly occurring vagrant species and almost 40 times more than honey buzzard in Tanzania, where the population has remained stable. Loss of forested area in East Africa was correlated with an increase in European honey buzzard records in southern Africa. Main conclusions We suggest that the European honey buzzard shift in wintering range may be driven by a decline in suitable habitat further north in Africa amongst other possible reasons. This effect may have been amplified by an increase in appropriate habitat across southern Africa brought about by anthropogenic changes to vegetation such as increased tree cover in urban areas. This study further highlights the importance of using African distributional data banks to understand the effects of global change on Palaearctic migrant bird species.

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Grassland to Urban Forest in 150 Years: Avifaunal Response in an African Metropolis

Cited by 18 publications

References 81 publications

South African raptors in urban landscapes: a review

South African raptors in urban landscapes: a review

Biological Invasions in South Africa’s Urban Ecosystems: Patterns, Processes, Impacts, and Management

Evidence of large‐scale range shift in the distribution of a Palaearctic migrant in Africa

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