Fitz News: April 2011

UCT News: "One giant speaks of another: Attenborough at UCT" - podcast available

Those of you who missed out on last night's lecture by Sir David Attenborough - and those of you who want to relive the experience - can listen to the podcast of the talk on UCT's website.

Find out more:

Read UCT News article
Listen to podcast of the talk

Image: From UCT website: http://www.uct.ac.za/dailynews/?id=7774.

UCT Vice-Chancellor's Open Lecture by Sir David Attenborough

The UCT Vice-Chancellor's Open Lecture by Sir David Attenborough at the Baxter Theatre on Wednesday 13 April 2011 will be the final celebratory event of the 50th Anniversary of the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology.

Please Note: Due to limited seating in the Baxter Concert Hall, this event will be ticketed and tickets can only be collected in person from the Box Office at the Baxter Theatre Centre. The tickets will not be available at any other Computicket outlet, nor on-line. The tickets will be available on a first-come-first-served basis. A maximum of two tickets can be collected per person. There will be no reservations of tickets. Tickets can be collected from Thursday 7 April until Saturday 9 April 2011.

More details about the talk can be found on the UCT website: Open Lecture by Sir David Attenborough.

Biodiversity Expo at Kirstenbosch: 5 - 8 May 2011

Along with several other local organisations, the FitzPatrick Institute will be exhibiting at this year's Biodiversity Expo at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens.

"Now in it’s 4th year, the Biodiversity Expo is a conservation community event where each of the organizations participating have realized that we can achieve a greater critical mass to ensure that future generations can enjoy the biodiversity wealth we enjoy today… by working together! We hereby invite you to join us in celebrating life through this event!"

More details can be found on the Biodiversity Expo Blog.

Fitz AGM Seminar Programme: 8 April 2011

The Seminar Programme for this year's AGM is now available and can be downloaded or viewed online.

See AGM page for further details.

Fitz News in Africa - Birds & Birding: "Safe in the swamps?"

PFIAO. 2011. Safe in the swamps? Africa - Birds & Birding 16(2):22.

The Shoebill Balaeniceps rex, listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, has no close relatives and is confined to large, well-vegetated wetlands in tropical Africa. Zambia’s 600 000-hectare Bangweulu Swamps are home to approximately 1 300 Shoebills, one of the largest populations of this species in the world.

Although the birds are highly prized by tourists, the swamps are under mounting pressure from the local community, and fishing, disturbance, persecution and fire are likely to cause increasing problems for their avian inhabitants. In view of the importance of both the species and its wetland home, Shoebill conservation has moved onto the Fitztitute’s agenda in 2011. The last time a Fitztitute researcher studied the species was in the mid-1970s, and that was in the swamps of southern Sudan. More...

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