Current News from the FitzPatrick Institute

What's New???

See What's New??? to find out what's been added or updated in the last month.

Conservation Biology Coursework Masters turns 21!

The Conservation Biology Coursework Masters programme has produced over 200 MSc graduates since it began in 1992 (See Conservation Biology MSc Graduates) and in the next few weeks the class of 2011 will be submitting their mini-theses in preparation for graduation in June. We'd like to take this opportunity to wish them well and to welcome the class that's just registered - the 21st Conservation Biology Coursework Masters class!
 

			Conservation Biology Coursework Masters: Class of 2012
Conservation Biology Coursework Masters: Class of 2012: They are, from left to right: top row: Daniël Cloete, Lea Cohen, Kimon de Greef, Vera Liebau; second row: Louise (Lou) Palframan, Wade Lane, Koebraa Peters; third row: Craig Harding, Christine (Chrissie) Madden, Jayaneesh (Jah) Namah, Heinz Ortmann; and fourth row: Katherine (Kat) Forsythe, Jessica Greenston, Kirsten Retief, Carolyn (Caz) Sanguinetti.

Fitz News in Africa - Birds & Birding: Bird-friendly farming in highland grasslands

PFIAO. 2012. News from the Percy FitzPatrick Institute. Bird-friendly farming in highland grasslands. Africa Birds & Birding 17(1):22.

South Africa’s grasslands host five Ramsar wetland sites, more than 3 300 plant species, 15 of the country’s 34 endemic mammals, and 12 of its 40 endemic birds (five of which are Globally Threatened). Sixty per cent of these grasslands have been irreversibly transformed. Moist highland grasslands in South Africa (of which only 1.5 per cent are conserved) were historically maintained naturally by winter and spring fires, probably at intervals of four years or more, and through summer grazing by migratory, medium-sized antelope. Today, these grasslands are managed by livestock farmers, who in most areas burn annually at the beginning of the rainy season in early summer, which coincides with the onset of breeding in birds. More

See Africa - Birds & Birding archive for more news from the Fitz.

Fitz Seminar: 'Deceptive strategies of the fork-tailed drongo' - by Dr Tom Flower

Animals commonly deceive each other, but just as in Aesop's fable 'The boy who cried wolf', they cease responding to deceptive signals that are made too frequently. This constrains deceptive behaviour, but where species can change their deceptive signal, deception rackets might be maintained? I show that Fork-tailed drongos deceive other animals, using both their own and mimicked alarm calls, to scare other animals and steal their food. Furthermore, I demonstrate that other species are more likely to be deceived by mimicked alarm calls, and that by employing vocal mimicry to vary their false alarms, drongos may maintain deception. This work illustrates the sophisticated strategies employed by animals in deceptive communication and provides evidence of function for vocal mimicry, a common but little understood behaviour. I conclude by discussing my current research plans investigating the extent to which drongos strategically adjust their deceptive behaviour, and how drongos acquire the ability to make deceptive mimicked alarm calls.