As part of her research, Joselyn Mormile tracked where baboons spent their time and what was attracting them. Their range is plotted in the squares - the more dense the red, the more time they spend at those locations. You may have wondered how the baboons choose where to spend their days in village or where they go when they aren’t in the village. To answer these questions, and others, I used GPS collars which provided me with the location of the collared baboon every half an hour. Results of the final analyses offer some very interesting findings! The troop has an estimated home range that stretches from Sparks Bay through the smallholdings towards Pringle Bay, and is a range of 5.7km2. This is on the low end for chacma baboon home range sizes, which indicates that they are able to meet their needs in a fairly small area. They spent approximately 50% of their time in the village, despite the fact that the village only accounts for about 15% of their entire home range. Models of their movement reveal that they prefer to spend time in low-lying areas, which offer more productive vegetation, near their sleeping sites in the mountains. This makes the village a prime location to forage before we even consider any other factors! The baboons need access to the coastal plain vegetation. They play an important role in dispersing the seed and keeping our fynbos renewed. But there are other attractants too, as Joselyn explains below The video clip of baboons foraging was shared by another Rooielser - dont miss the youngster that comes flying down from the pole having been displaced by a large male (25 seconds into the video) Within the village, the baboons chose to spend more time on properties in closer proximity to a household that routinely sets food out for wildlife. Feeding baboons creates a myriad of issues including, but not limited to, disrupting their social behavior, altering their daily activity patterns, diverting them from fulfilling their ecological role in the fynbos and even encouraging assertive behavior towards people. It is also prohibited by law. One particular property, which was feeding them for many years no longer offers food. It was a powerful magnet that drew in the troop, altering both the size and shape of their entire home range. If we look at their diet as a whole, the troop spent the majority of their time eating fynbos (Osteospermum monilifera “bitou” berries and Searsia lucida berries are the top favorites!) and grass. Grass, predominantly in the form of lawns on properties, serves as a reliable winter fallback food when fynbos is less productive. It also offers a soft, open area for the youngsters to play and everyone to relax. As it turns out, grass is so important to the troop that my data show the more lawn you have, the more often the baboons will visit! Their use of individual properties was also predicted by resident behavior, as self-reported in my study questionnaire. The troop spent significantly more time on properties, predominately resting and socialising, where residents did not deter them. There is much more to share from my study. I look forward to sharing my finished thesis with the village soon! Photos by Joselyn
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An exciting find -- Retzia capensis is a unique plant as the only member of its genus of the family Stilbaceae (Rourke 2000) with remarkable similarity to the iridoid glucosides of Stilbae. ericoides. It was first described in 1776 and is found in Sandstone fynbos from Hottentots Holland to Bredarsdorp. Although not a red data list plant it is not common It is closely related to Kogelbergia verticillata which is also of the Stillbacae family and is a red data plant. Please take a photo and let us know if you see it.
At the end of April the baboons were seen on several days foraging along the rocks off Rocklands Road and they were around for early May. But then they disappeared for over a week back into the hills. Since their return there has been much dislocation and trouble in the troop as we are in for a change of regime. Cliff has held on much longer than expected as leader of the troop. Such a gentleman; he kept them out of trouble until the older boys started roaming on their own. Unfortunately Cliff has been seen presenting (usually a sign of submission) to Benji but he is still with his kids and for now seems to be leading them. However there is much jostling, some blood and loud fighting between Indwe and the smaller but more aggressive Benji. So we will probably see a change in leadership soon. Also in the photos below "Sebastian" is the latest addition. He was seen in Rooiels with his mum Sage on 11th May. Do yourselves a favour - be sure to read the Blog post of Jens Assmann.
Jens is a German photographer who visited Rooiels and fell in love. Go the this LINK to see the beautiful photos and read his Blog. Judith Stopforth visited the seals on Roman Rocks with her Canon on one of the few windless afternoons during the Christmas holidays - and they counted 140 seals.
Thanks for sharing these great photos In the distance much whale activity that was different from that of Bryde's and Southern Right for the last few weeks of May and then early June much closer - caught on camera. Unfortunately only a cell phone photo but clear enough to determine that this was the Orca (Orcinus orca). Known as a killer whale it is actually a toothed whale that belongs to the oceanic dolphin family. There are three distinct forms and it is likely that O. orca will be split into a number of different species or at least subspecies (IUCN). They are the most widely distributed mammal on earth apart from humans. They are carnivorous and had a devastating effect on great white sharks in False Bay and Gansbaai in 2017. The scientists found that the white shark livers‚ nutritious and weighing as much as a human being‚ had been removed with almost surgical precision by the orcas. Some of the great whites returned and shark diving operators even welcomed some individual sharks they recognised (Keeton, April 2018).
It would be interesting to know if the two seen here recently have had a similar impact on the sharks - or perhaps our seal colony. Does anyone have any updated information to share? |
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May 2022
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