Wild Chats with EWT

[Lisbeth]

Join Andrew and Ndi for a fascinating Wild Chat on 29 April 2020, at 11:00 (GMT+2)

Wildlife trade has major impacts on society and conservation, and has received much recent attention due to rhino poaching and COVID-19.

Please join Dr Andrew Taylor and Ndifelani Mulaudzi from the EWT’s Wildlife in Trade Programme for this insightful Wild Chat, delving into the positives and negatives of trade in wildlife, both legal and illegal, and the need to stop illegal, harmful trade, while recognising that some legal trade can have positive outcomes.

This talk is suitable for adults.

You can see how to join in the posts above!

[Lisbeth]

[Lisbeth]

Join Marnus for a fascinating Wild Chat on 5 May 2020, at 11:00 (GMT+2)

Marnus Roodbol, EWT Lion Conservation Officer, has spent many years in several different African countries, working side by side with rural communities from the legendary San people of the Namibian desert, to the livestock farmers of Botswana.

Join this Wild Chat as he explores the struggles communities experience, including the complex issues of human-wildlife conflict that many may not understand.

This talk is suitable for teens and adults. It contains some visuals that sensitive viewers may find disturbing - there will be warnings before these are displayed.

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[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

The Endangered Wildlife Trust celebrates World Migratory Bird Day 2020



The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) will be celebrating and supporting World Migratory Bird Day on 9 May 2020. The theme of this year’s celebrations is Birds connect our world and it was chosen to highlight the importance of conserving and restoring the ecological connectivity and integrity of ecosystems that support the systems that are essential to sustain migratory birds across their flyways. André Botha, manager of the EWT’s Vultures for Africa Programme, explains: “At a time when global air travel by man has, to a large extent, come to a standstill due to COVID-19 restrictions, the annual migration of millions of birds across the world continued uninterrupted during March and April. These flights are not without challenges, with a range of potential threats impacting many individuals who undertake these arduous journeys twice a year, often between hemispheres, continents, and at a more local level. The migrations do, however, illustrate the connectivity of habitats used by these migrants across flyways, and the need for coordinated conservation action along these, irrespective of international boundaries.”

To celebrate World Migratory Bird Day, the EWT will be hosting a Wild Chat Webinar on Friday, 8 May ,2020 at 11:00 (GMT+2), entitled Craniacs! Everything you want to know about cranes. You can also follow our social media on Saturday, 9 May, where we will sharing fun activities for the whole family, such as lessons on how to fold Origami cranes, as well as more information on the amazing feat that is bird migration.

The EWT has been involved in the Migratory Kestrel Project since the early 2000s, and also partnered with researchers from Germany and Hungary in the trapping and fitting of satellite tracking to the first Amur Falcons whose migratory movements were tracked after being trapped by volunteers at Newcastle in 2010. Another sample was tracked in India in 2016, and one of the females from this sample has just completed her eighth non-stop migratory flight of about 4,500-5,000 km across the Indian Ocean between Africa and India since being tracked. Another individual completed this crossing in mid-March this year, departing on 21 March and arriving in eastern India on 26 March, having covered 4,800 km in just five days. From here, the Amur Falcons still need to fly around the Himalayas to their breeding grounds in eastern China and Mongolia, a total distance from their wintering grounds in southern Africa of as much as 13,000 km! These birds will again make the journey south in October/November to over-winter back here during our summer.

These birds not only travel extraordinary distances, they also face immense challenges. During the recent African summer months, many volunteer observers noted a significant decline in the number of some migratory species, such as Amur- and Red-footed Falcons and White Storks, that were present in the region compared to previous years. This can possibly be ascribed to the massive Brown Locust eruptions that were observed over large parts of east Africa that likely provided an abundance of food and resulted in many birds remaining up there rather than moving all the way to southern Africa. However, the extensive control measures, such as the aerial spraying of chemicals to kill locust flocks, implemented by authorities in the affected areas, raise concerns about possible large-scale poisoning of these species in such areas when they consume insects that were killed by these measures. The above is an example of the range of threats faced by birds while on migration and illustrates the need for coordinated and concerted conservation action across the flyway.

In collaboration with the Wageningen University and the Peregrine Fund, the EWT is also currently undertaking novel research to understand the breeding and migratory ecology in the intra-African migrant, the Wahlberg’s Eagle. Very little is known about this migratory eagle and our research is geared to identify the important flight pathways, overwintering, breeding and stopover sites used by the species so that we can develop and implement conservation action to protect these sites. To date, nine individuals from have been fitted with GPS tracking units. The four birds that the EWT GPS-tagged in South Africa undertake a round trip of over 10,000 km every year from their overwintering grounds in Chad and South Sudan to their summer breeding sites in South Africa.

The EWT has multiple programmes that work on migratory species, including the Birds of Prey, Vultures for Africa and African Crane Conservation programmes. Although South Africa’s cranes are non-migratory, this is not the case for most of the world’s 15 crane species. Our range of projects and partnerships, across a variety of countries in Africa, enables us to contribute to conservation initiatives in some key areas along major migratory flyways on the continent. While most of the migratory bird species that occur in southern Africa have by now departed north to their breeding or wintering grounds, it is still important for us to observe this day and support the need to conserve them and the habitats that they are dependent on.

[Lisbeth]

Register for 12 May: Communities as custodians of catchments

Join Nkosinathi Nama, Field Officer with our People in Conservation Programme, for this fascinating Wild Chat about catchments and communities. During his chat, Nkosinathi will unpack the use of South Africa’s Strategic Water Source Areas as a departure point to explore the importance of these geographic features. He will also discuss the links between communities, catchments and biodiversity. Now, more than ever, there is a need for an integrated approach to catchment management strategies. One example of this is the EWT's work in the Amathole catchment area, where Nkosinathi and the team have been applying a communities-centered approach to conserving species and habitats locally for the benefit of broader catchment management. This talk is suitable for teens and adults.

Register for 14 May: Wildlife trade and disease: An interactive panel discussion

COVID-19 has raised a lot of questions about wildlife trade, wet markets, China’s role, and the spread of disease. What is COVID19? What does zoonotic mean? What does wildlife have to do with this disease? What is a wet market? What was China’s trade ban all about? In this interactive panel discussion, Annie DuPre-Reynolds and Dr Andrew Taylor, from the EWT's Wildlife in Trade Programme, will answer questions on this global pandemic and its impacts on wildlife and trade. This talk is suitable for adults.

Register for 15 May: Extreme nature continued

Constant Hoogstad, EWT Senior Manager: Industry Partnerships, has more than 20 years' experience in conservation. Join him for the next round of his weird and wonderful conservation experiences! In this incredible Wild Chat, he'll be sharing anecdotes about more of his most unexpected experiences in the field, including discovering a mamba in the car; why you should always respect wild animals, even if people tell you they're tame; the hidden dangers of sundowners; and many more. This talk is suitable for all ages.

[Lisbeth]

Next week on Wild Chat!

Next week, we'll be bringing you three more exciting Wild Chats, which will each be approximately 20-30 minutes long, with time afterwards for questions and answers.

You can register for the chats of your choice, using the links below. Each Wild Chat is also recorded and shared on our YouTube channel and other social media platforms afterwards, meaning no one has to miss out!

So stay home, stay safe, and stay connected with our wild world.

If you would like to donate towards the critical conservation work being shared, please click here



Register for 19 May: Vanishing vultures

Join Dr Lindy Thompson, EWT Project Coordinator: Vulture Conservation and Research, for this fascinating Wild Chat, focused on African vultures.
Lindy will be sharing a few mind-blowing facts about vultures and chatting about why these iconic scavengers are so important. She’ll also ask the crucial question – why are vultures vanishing? If you’d like to find out what you can do to help vultures, be sure not to miss this Wild Chat. This talk is suitable for all ages.

Register for 21 May: What the EWT is doing for wild Cheetah conservation

Since 2011, Vincent van der Merwe has overseen the growth of the EWT’s Cheetah metapopulation project from 217 Cheetahs on 41 reserves to 385 individuals on 60 reserves. Join him for this insightful Wild Chat as he discusses the origins of this project and the establishment of the only growing wild Cheetah population worldwide.
He’ll also chat about the evolution of the Cheetah and how they fit into the cat family, as well as the global decline of wild Cheetah populations over the past 13,000 years. Over the course of the webinar, Vincent will introduce you to some of our more famous wild Cheetahs, expand on our plans for the future, and so much more. This talk is suitable for all ages.

Register for 22 May: Getting to know our national bird, the Blue Crane

Join Christie Craig for this wonderful Wild Chat, all about South Africa’s beautiful national bird, the Blue Crane. She’ll cover the basics, like breeding, roosting, and feeding, as well as some history of the population, looking at how and why it declined, and some of the interventions to turn this around.
Christie will also touch briefly on her PhD, and why research into Blue Cranes is so important. She’ll share fascinating insights into how Blue Cranes move, drawing information from ringing records and satellite trackers. This talk is suitable for teens and adults.

[Lisbeth]

Next week on Wild Chat!

Next week, we'll be bringing you three more exciting Wild Chats, which will each be approximately 20-30 minutes long, with time afterwards for questions and answers.

You can register for the chats of your choice, using the links below. Each Wild Chat is also recorded and shared on our YouTube channel and other social media platforms afterwards, meaning no one has to miss out!

So stay home, stay safe, and stay connected with our wild world.

[Lisbeth]

Next week on Wild Chat!

In June, we'll be bringing you two wonderful Wild Chats each week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which will be approximately 20-30 minutes long, with time afterwards for questions and answers. We'll be shifting the times of these chats from 11:00 to 15:00 (GMT+2).

You can register for the chats of your choice, using the links below. Each Wild Chat is also recorded and shared on our YouTube channel and other social media platforms afterwards, meaning no one has to miss out!

So stay home, stay safe, and stay connected with our wild world.



Register for 2 June: Protecting the protected

Many of you will be familiar with animals being killed on our highways, but it sadly also happens in national parks. Please join Wendy Collinson, Manager of the EWT’s Wildlife and Transport Programme, as she talks about the research being done to uncover how we are protecting wildlife in our protected areas – the very spaces that are the sworn custodians of biodiversity.
She’ll take you through some of the studies we have done to identify ways to prevent the threats roads and vehicles pose to wildlife, and the experience of working inside national parks.
This chat is suitable for all ages.

Register for 4 June: Celebrating World Environment Day and biodiversity with the EWT

World Environment Day takes place on 5 June, and the theme for this year's celebrations is biodiversity. There has never been a more critical time for us to turn our attention to how we protect the natural world around us. Please join the EWT’s senior conservationists – Dr Ian Little, Kerryn Morrison and Constant Hoogstad – in a fascinating discussion about the work we do to save species and habitats, to the benefit of people.
This interactive Wild Chat, which will be facilitated by Dr Harriet Davies-Mostert, will explore why biodiversity is so important, and what we can do to conserve it. It will be a Q&A session, so please bring your burning questions!
This chat is suitable for teens and adults.

[Lisbeth]

Next week on Wild Chat!



Register for 9 June: Conserving South Africa's largest crane

Join Dr Lara Jordan, from our African Crane Conservation Programme, as she discusses the conservation of South Africa’s largest crane, the Wattled Crane.
Lara will chat about breeding, roosting and foraging behaviour, as well as social groupings and why this is important. She’ll also touch on the importance of nest sites, the threats posed to these, and the dangers for juveniles, as well as how we monitor the species and the challenges associated with this.
This talk is suitable for teens and adults.

Register for 11 June: Bringing home the "Green Oscar" for amphibian conservation

Dr Jeanne Tarrant, who heads up the EWT’s Threatened Amphibian Programme, has been selected from an original 112 applicants as one of six winners for this year’s prestigious Whitley Awards, or “Green Oscars”. Hers is the only winning project this year focused on amphibians, one of just three representing projects from Africa, and the only one from South Africa.
Join us for this Wild Chat where Jeanne will discuss what the Whitley Award means to her and how these funds will be used. This project is focused on eight of South Africa’s threatened frogs across three provinces, for which she will initiate habitat protection to secure a total of 20,000 hectares of important amphibian habitat. She will also lead the revision of the next 10-year strategy for amphibian conservation and research in South Africa, and bring to completion several conservation action plans for threatened species. The Whitley Award is allowing her to expand her conservation work further into the Western Cape, where most of the country’s threatened and endemic species occur.
This talk is suitable for teens and adults.