Oryx Vol 37 No 4 October 2003 Short Communication Satellite tracking of flamingos in southern Africa: the importance of small wetlands for management and conservation Graham McCulloch, Adrian Aebischer and Kenneth Irvine Abstract The Makgadikgadi Salt Pans in Botswana are Africa to Makgadikgadi to breed. It also shows that, during the non-breeding season, movement is widely dispersed one of the most important breeding sites in southern Africa for lesser flamingos Phoeniconaias minor and and nomadic among a network of wetlands around the subcontinent. Small wetlands, often unrecognized as greater flamingos Phoenicopterus ruber roseus. Much of flamingo migration behaviour is unknown and there has important for conservation, provide valuable feeding sites and migration staging posts along flamingo migration been speculation on the pattern of flamingo movements to and from Makgadikgadi and their dispersal through- routes. This highlights the need for the conservation of the network of small wetlands around southern out southern Africa. We carried out the first satellite tracking of flamingos in southern Africa to find out Africa, which are often under threat from anthropogenic activities, to protect two high profile bird species in where lesser and greater flamingos go after leaving Makgadikgadi. In July 2001 five lesser and three greater decline. flamingos were tagged. Following migration from the pans, one of the greater flamingos flew west to the Keywords Flamingos, migration, Phoeniconaias, Phoeni- copterus, satellite tracking, southern Africa, telemetry, coast of Namibia, the other south to a small wetland in South Africa. The lesser flamingos moved south-east wetlands. from Makgadikgadi to South Africa and Mozambique. Movement by both species was nocturnal. This work This paper contains supplementary material that can only be found online at http://journals.cambridge.org shows that flamingos migrate from all over southern Of the five species of flamingos that occur worldwide may have caused a >20% decline of flamingo numbers over the last two decades. Collectively, small wetlands two, the greater flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber roseus and the lesser flamingo Phoeniconaias minor, occur in Africa. also provide an important but poorly understood habitat network for flamingos (Breen, 1991; Anderson, 2000c). The lesser flamingo is categorized on the IUCN Red List as Lower Risk: near threatened across its entire range The conservation of flamingos on small ephemeral pans and some perennial wetlands around southern Africa (Collar et al., 1994; IUCN, 2002) and both species are listed in the African Eurasian Waterbird Agreement is of concern owing to the lack of formal, eCective pro- tection of the majority of these increasingly threatened (AEWA, 2000) as ‘‘populations in decline throughout southern Africa’’. Both species are considered Lower sites (Davies & Day, 1986; Allan, 1987; Breen, 1991; Allan et al., 1995; Anderson, 2000c). Risk: near threatened or Vulnerable throughout southern Africa owing primarily to the lack of breeding sites The salt pans of the Makgadikgadi depression are a relict of an immense Quaternary palaeolake that once and the vulnerability of breeding to both natural and anthropogenic disturbance (Brook, 1984; Simmons, 1996; covered much of northern Botswana (Thomas & Shaw, 1991). The remnants of this great lake at Ntwetwe and Anderson, 2000a, b). Simmons (1996, 2000) has suggested that a lack of successful breeding at the large wetland Sua Pans comprise a flat surface of saline clay that is flooded intermittently with seasonal rainfall. During sites of Etosha Pan in Namibia and Sua Pan in Botswana the rainy season (October–April), the pans are trans- formed into vast shallow salt lakes that provide excellent Graham McCulloch (Corresponding author) and Kenneth Irvine Department of Zoology, Trinity College, feeding conditions for both species of flamingos. The Dublin 2, Ireland. E-mail: mccullg@tcd.ie southern section of Sua Pan provides one of the most important breeding sites for both species in southern Adrian Aebischer, 2 Rte de Schiffenen 17, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. Africa, with breeding success depending on the extent of seasonal flooding (Hancock, 1990; Simmons, 1996). Received 19 June 2002. Revision requested 25 September 2002. Accepted 27 May 2003. The pans typically dry out at the end of each season, 480 © 2003 FFI, Oryx, 37(4), 480–483 DOI: 10.1017/S0030605303000851 Printed in the United Kingdom . https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605303000851 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 54.70.40.11, on 22 Dec 2018 at 16:17:24, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms