Conservation Conversations: Dr Kate Carstens & Prof Colleen Downs-Cape Parrot Conservation (25May21)

On Tuesday, 25 May 2021 at 19:00 (SAST), BirdLife South Africa's weekly webinar series ‘Conservation Conversations with BirdLife South Africa’
hosted Dr Kate Carstens who is a Research Associate for the Cape Parrot Project & Prof. Colleen Downs who is the South African Research Chair in Ecosystem Health and Biodiversity in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and Chair of the Cape Parrot Working Group

Save its habitat and you’ll save the species. Its not surprising therefore that The Wild Bird Trust’s Cape Parrot Project invests a lot of time actively restoring the Mistbelt Habitat in the Amathole Mountains. Each year we aim to restore 10 hectares of forest and plant 3000 indigenous seedlings in suitable habitat. We have established community projects that grow seedlings for us that we buy back to plant in the forests. We also undertake a variety of research projects on the species to understand key knowledge gaps. This includes studies locating and describing natural nesting sites using drones, monitoring the demographics and health of the population using hi-res photographs, identifying critical forest patches using acoustic monitors, and understanding whether Cape Parrots are adapting to the presence of exotic species around them by investigating their diet.
We’ll briefly touch on all of these and provide you with stories from the people on the ground. Dive into our world with us and find out more about the work we do and our partners who work with us to save the species!

Join us for another #ConservationConversation

[mariannesparrow]

Great presentation and video. Thank you

[lindythompson]

Thanks so much Coll, Kate, Cassie and Melissa for a really great presentation!