Andrew Jenkins studied Peregrine Falcons in the Greater Cape Town area from the late 1980s until 2020, initially as a Phd student at the FitzPatrick Instutute, UCT, and latterly as a Research Associate of the Institute. The study focused on individually colour-marking as many of the adult birds in the population as possible, as well as the majority of young produced each year, and monitoring survival, dispersal, and breeding success of these marked birds in relation to a variety of potential biotic and abiotic drivers. The study accumulated over two decades of detailed demographic data, and documented a more than five-fold increase in the size of the population over that time, including a major expansion of breeding birds into the deep urban areas of the city. Andrew is currently collaborating with Assoc. Prof. Res Altwegg of the Dept of Statistical Sciences at UCT, in analysing and publishing aspects of this study.

The SA Taita Falcon Survey Team operates under the auspices of BirdLife South Africa, and is recognised as the global Species Guardian for the Taita Falcon by BirdLife International’s Preventing Extinctions Programme. The Team conducts annual Taita Falcon surveys and nest monitoring in the Mpumalanga/Limpopo escarpment area, and is trying to generate similar levels of interest in this hyper-rare and globally threatened species in other parts of its African range. The latter work has included surveys of the Batoka Gorge below Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and most recently the Niassa Special Reserve, northern Mozambique. Andrew Jenkins and Anthony van Zyl are both founding members of the Team.

Find out more about the Taita Falcon project.

Anthony van Zyl studied the Rock Kestrel population on the Cape Peninsula, starting in 1993-94 and then again from 1999-2010. This study formed part of the cliff-nesting raptor monitoring project on the Cape Peninsula with Andrew Jenkins and Lucia Rodriques. The study included finding as many Rock Kestrel territories as possible, individually marking some adults and ringing chicks at accessible nest sites, monitoring breeding success of the study period, and documenting breeding success in different territories across the peninsula. The project also assisted SANParks to determine which nest sites were vulnerable to disturbance specifically by climbers in the national park.