30 Sep 2002 - Comparing wildlife today with that present 15 to 20 years ago
by Spike Holley
Background:
The climatic region in the Natal Midlands, known as the "mist belt", would naturally have been "middle veld, sour veld" but for the almost complete invasion of exotic plants such as timber and sugar. This is the area best suited to commercial forestry with, in our case, exotic hard woods and sugar cane in the frost-free areas.
As a child, I can remember regular organised shoots on the property, where guineafowl and quail were fairly common. At that time, the area was characterised by mixed farming with a fair amount of agriculture and open spaces in valley bottoms to protect stream water supply.
Modern Farming (the dark ages):
With technological improvements (both mechanical and genetic) and more aggressive financial objectives, both demands on and levels of land utilisation increased, as with the focus on monoculture, to the point where I am embarrassed to admit, that there was less than one hectare of natural grass land!
Green Farming:
The forest industry, Sappi and Mondi, initiated an environmental program to achieve and maintain a sustainable and responsible approach to the environment and all the communities that rely on it. We have adopted this approach and over the last ten years or so, removed crop (both sugar cane and timber) from at least 15% of the area previously farmed commercially.
Results:
As reported in the AGRED findings,
“There is no one major contributing factor to the demise of the Guineafowl, but a number of factors, amongst those, is modern farming practice".
This is absolutely correct: at one stage, we lost all our Guineafowl, there was no habitat left for them! Fortunately, the corrective action has re-established and is in the process of correcting the habitat to the point where some game is now a problem. Natal francolin are now common, I used to think that these were game reserve birds. We occasionally see Shelley's francolin and Kurrichane button quail are common. We have reintroduced (indigenous) Guineafowl, which are doing well and have spread into three groups, two small remaining wild and one large that has stayed around the house.
Yellowthroated longclaws are fairly common, I did not associate these with this habitat.
While we have lots of Longcrested eagles as one would expect, as with Forest and Steppe buzzards, we now have a resident Jackal buzzard as well as Spotted eagle and Giant eagle owls. We have the usual geese and ducks, including Black River duck, Coot, etc. but our best visitor is the Osprey which we see fairly regularly. We also have Longtailed wagtails and Giant, Pied, Brownhooded and Malachite kingfishers. We also have Crested barbets, Wrynecks and Cardinal woodpeckers, which I would assume has more to do with climate change as these species would not normally be associated with this climate.
In other wildlife; Bush pig and duiker are a problem, they are now so prolific in numbers. Reedbuck are very common (they have adapted to sugar cane) and a resident Bushbuck. Even the Slender mongoose has made a comeback, White-tailed and Cape Mongoose as well as the Clawless otter. Twenty years ago, Ant-bears (Aardvarks) were a common sight in this area but virtually disappeared in the intervening years, thankfully there has been some evidence that they are starting to return. Hares and Porcupines are becoming common. We have a positive report of a Serval cat which is great news as well as Caracal and Jackal which are now quite common and can be heard at night. On the down side, feral cats and dogs and some poaching is a problem.
The biggest threat to the environment is invasive plants, mainly Chromalina and Lantana.
I don't think that our experience is unusual, I am sure that there are many better examples of improvement. I have been very lucky to have the opportunity to be part of a rehabilitation objective and to have had the exposure to and influence of Gordon McLean and David Johnson, through the local Bird Club lectures at Pietermaritzburg University. Their advice has been simply to get the habitat right which, while not as difficult as one might think, is much more expensive and time consuming than one expects, but at the end of the day, it is very rewarding to be able to make a contribution.
Spike Holley, Dec 2002
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