The Fitz and the Mabula Ground-Hornbill Project move closer together

The success of the Mabula Ground-Hornbill Project (MGHP) near Bela Bela, north of Pretoria, and the Fitztitute’s Ground-Hornbill research project at the Associated Private Nature Reserves (APNR), west of the Kruger National Park, is of mutual benefit to both parties, and to the ultimate effective recovery of Southern Ground-Hornbill Bocorvus leadbeateri populations.

We have therefore entered into a partnership between the Fitztitute and the MGHP so as to work together wherever practical, ensuring alignment of objectives and goals, including the guiding strategies of both parties with respect to the recovery of populations of the Southern Ground-Hornbill, which is listed as Critically Endangered in southern Africa.

The Fitztitute will endeavour to enhance the scientific approaches of the activities of the MGHP and will closely align the MGHP with the activities conducted by the Fitztitute in the APNR, using the APNR research on wild populations to underpin the knowledge for strategic approaches in the MGHP.

Rob Little has been appointed as a member of the Advisor Board of the MGHP and Jeremy Dickens has done the first phase of his field work at Mabula for his BSc Honours project. The latest news is that Kate Meares has been appointed as the Manager of the MGHP, to replace Ann Turner who started the MGHP a decade ago and is now returning to the UK to be closer to her family.

Kate has spent most of her life running after birds and pursuing her passion for conservation. She graduated in 2007 with her Masters in Biological and Conservation Sciences from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Since then she has undertaken field studies in Madagascar, Australia as well as in many game reserves in South Africa. Her interest in African birds has always kept her focused on a career in conservation and wildlife. We wish Kate well with her future at the MGHP and look forward to working with her.

Image: Kate Meares has been appointed as the Manager of the Mabula Ground-Hornbill Project.