Faunal Survey Newsletter

FAUNAL SURVEY

OCT 2018

Over 60 participants bundu-bashed the Cape Flats Nature Reserve for

everything that moved. Equipped with torches, cameras and loads of energy we
were not left disappointed by the results!

Just when we thought 2018 was close to an end with no new species list additions,
the survey surprised us with not one, not two, but six new additions!

Mammal Striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio)
survey
The traps were diligently checked twice a day by UWC’s small
A tedious task lay ahead
mammal expert Adriaan Engelbrecht and his Honour’s students. After
for the mammal survey which twelve days, 115 traps later, 14 small mammals were caught and three
stretched over a period of species recorded; Striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio), Pygmy mouse
two weeks; the week leading (Mus minutoides) and Cape gerbil (Gerbilliscus afra). An odd addition
up to the Faunal Survey and to their captures was a Small grey mongoose (Galerella pulverulenta)!
the heat wave week there-
after. Motion sensor camera traps were also put throughout the reserve and
caught the resident Caracal (Caracal caracal) and elusive Common
genet (Genetta genetta) passing by.

115 Sherman traps were set
out. 75 in the critically
endangered Cape Flats Sand
Fynbos and 50 on the dunes
of the endangered Cape Flats
Dune Strandveld.

Common genet (Genetta genetta) Caracal (Caracal caracal)

Bird ringing

At the crack of dawn, the mist nets

were set up to ‘catch the early bird’.
Dieter Oschadleus from SAFRING and his
team volunteered to see what the Cape
Flats Nature Reserve has to offer.

A total of 43 birds were caught with
thirteen different species. They were
‘bagged and tagged’ with an exciting
recapture of a Cape bulbul (Pycnonotus
capensis) which was caught in 2014!

SAFRING RECORD:
http://safring.adu.org.za/ring_info.php?ring=238803

Namaqua dove (Oena capensis) Jody de Bruyn

Brown backed honeybird (Prodotiscus regulus) New additions

Thank goodness we had expert birders on the

team to spot these LBJ’s! (for non-birders, that’s Little
Brown Jobbies).

The Brown backed honeybird (Prodotiscus regulus)
was previously recorded only as far south as Pretoria
and has continually expanded its ranged and reached
the Western Cape in 1986 making itself a permanent
resident.

The Neddicky or Piping Cisticola (Cisticola fulvicapilla)
is the second addition. Eight sub-species exist but can
be separated by locality.

Neddicky (Cisticola fulvicapilla) Jody de Bruyn

Bird watching

Birders with books and binos were exploring the reserve at an hour way to early for a Saturday morning,

but as the saying goes ‘the early bird catches the worm’. Martin Hendricks, Denver Hendricks, Richard Naidoo
and Mark Gibbons led the walk with eager volunteers. They were not disappointed with the variety spotted
and even came across some birds of prey on the hunt for breakfast.

52 species were seen of the 112 birds on our list. The Namaqua dove (Oena capensis) was also seen which has
evaded surveys for many years. Adding to that excitement, two new birds were added to the list!

Tortoise count

A scorcher of an afternoon found us on

hands and knees crawling over and under bushes
in search of the Angulate tortoise (Chersina
angulata). Each year a different block in the
reserve is surveyed to assess where they are most
abundant. This is an excellent skills training event
for students doing population counts in their
future careers.

A section of the Cape Flats Dune Strandveld was
surveyed. After a long hot search, tangled in
bushes and covered in scratches, we were happy
with the two we found...it was better than
nothing. They were weighed, measured, sexed
and a tick count was done.

Martin Hendricks gave a very educational talk
about their behaviour and how we go about
collecting data.

Reptile survey

The overall survey for reptiles proved only a

little more fruitful. The search for these scaly
creatures ran late into Friday evening and
again early Saturday morning.

The night search resulted in some chameleons
(Bradypodion pumilum) and geckos; the
adorable Marbled leaf toed gecko (Afrogecko
porphyreus) and Occelated gecko
(Pachydactylus geitjie).

Other reptilian treasures were found hidden
under logs and cover boards like the Cape
legless skink (Acontias meleagris).

Unfortunately no snakes were found during
this survey, however, of the 24 reptiles species
found in the reserve, four were found over the
survey weekend.

Painted lady (Venessa cardui)

Red veined dropwing (Trithemis arteriosa) Basil Boer 2018

Insect survey

Our insect species list is one that needs plenty

work. This year we focused on gathering enough
photographs to start a comprehensive list other than
our butterflies and dragonflies.

A diverse range of insect life was seen and we are
quite excited to get started on this compilation.

Our butterfly list is standing on 21 species, twelve of
which were seen over the weekend. In the coming
weeks we will be searching for the endangered Unique
ranger (Kadestes lenis lenis).

Dull copper (Aloeides pierus) Basil Boer 2018 Fynbos blue (Tarucus thespis)

Flora survey New additions

Coinciding with our Faunal Bract Disa Disa bracteata

Survey we started doing a Flora Disa bracteata Native to the Cape
survey. This took place on the
Wednesday leading up to the Geel spinnekopblom Province of South Africa and
main event, led by Lincoln and Ferarria divaricata one of the few orchid species
Rosemary Raitt. to become naturalised in
After a few scorching hours, we A South African Australia where it is
managed to add two new considered an invasive
additions to the list. Thursday endemic occurring in weed.
and Saturday added another Fynbos in sandy flats
two exciting finds! (which is exactly where we Geel spinnekopblom (Ferarria divaricata)
found this one).
Strandertjiebos (Lessertia argentea) Ferarria crispa is also on the
list but we are still looking
During the Faunal and Flora for it.

survey, we found several Sea parsley
individuals of the endangered Dasispermum suffruticosum
Strandertjiebos (Lessertia
argentea) throughout the An edible South African
reserve. We are quite excited
about this as UWC has not been endemic also known as
listed as a location for this Dune celery occurring in
species. coastal sands and dune
We also discovered our habitats.
vulnerable Snake-stemmed
pincushion (Leucospermum Sea parsley (Dasispermum suffruticosum)
hypophyllocarpodendron) in
flower and doing well. Drosanthemum sp.

Snake-stemmed pincushion Initially thought to be
(Leucospermum hypophyllocarpodendron hypophyllo.)
Lampranthus explanatus
which is on our list, we
found that this is in fact a
Drosanthemum. It has not
been identified to species
level as yet.

Drosanthemum sp.

The experience

Thank You’s

It was so lovely meeting new people and seeing familiar faces :) Thank you for
participating and contributing to the updating of lists at the Cape Flats Nature
Reserve. Your lists and photographs are exactly what we need to update our
species lists. We hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have and that we will see
you again at future surveys.

A special thank you also goes out to:

Group leaders: thank you for an excellent job! We appreciate the time and energy
you put into these surveys. I've heard lovely compliments about how informative the
leaders were and what an educational experience it was!

To my colleagues: thank you for your hard work to make the Faunal Survey and
Plant Sale a success, without you this would not be possible! Hestelle Melville,
there were so many compliments about the catering, thank you for feeding the
masses in style!
Jade Leon for assisting with the Plant Sale
Monya Dietrich for sharing our Faunal Survey advert with the Science Faculty
Linda van Heerden for sharing our Faunal Survey advert with BCB staff and
students

Erika van Breda: you were invited to participate and went above and beyond to
make everyone feel welcome. You did such a good job, you managed to convince
some people you work here lol. Thank you!

Lincoln and Rosemary Raitt, Ismail Abrahams and Rupert Koopman: thank you
for your continuous support and your willingness to do a Flora Survey Survey..we are
very excited about the findings!

Martin Hendricks: thank you also for your continuous support with the Tortoise
Survey. We did not find many tortoises, but it was a wonderful, educational exercise
which we thoroughly enjoyed!

Adriaan Engelbrecht and team: thank you for your contribution to the mammal list!
Your hard work for the week is much appreciated :)

Silindokuhle Tokota: thank you for heading up the reptile survey. Your enthusiasm
for herpetology is always appreciated.

Dieter Oscadleus and team: thank you for squeezing us into your busy bird ringing
schedule, we always appreciate your assistance.

Martin Hendricks, Denver Hendricks, Mark Gibbons and Richard Naidoo: thank
you for leading the bird watching group and helping keep our lists up to date!

Fanie Rautenbach and Basil Boer: your continuous support is much appreciated
with the butterflies and dragonflies :) Thank you!

Jody de Bruyn: thank you for the use of your bird photographs for this newsletter.

UWC NATURE RESERVE UNIT

Manager - Hestelle Melville
[email protected] / 021 959 2498
Education & Research - Laurenda van Breda
[email protected] / 021 959 3274
Nature Conservator - Robin Adams
[email protected] / 021 959 3384
Horticulturist - Zoleka Maphanga
[email protected] / 021 959 3273

Study nature, love nature,
stay close to nature.
It will never fail you.

Frank Lloyd Wright

design and layout by Laurenda van Breda