Browsing by Author "Lee, Woo S."
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Item First record of the association of Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis with Shoebill Balaeniceps rex(2012-11) John, Jasson; Lee, Woo S.Association of Cattle Egrets Bubulcus ibis with large herbivores is well documented, but there are few records of their association with large birds. Here we describe the first-known records of foraging interactions between Shoebill Balaeniceps rex and Cattle Egrets. The observations were made at the Malagarasi-Muyovozi Ramsar Site in western Tanzania. Small flocks of egrets approached and foraged within 5 m of a Shoebill, which was sometimes forced to move from its hunting pool and by doing so it likely flushed more prey for egrets. Interactions occurred almost exclusively in the driest months, which suggested that prey were more difficult to locate by egrets during this period. The Shoebill inhabits inaccessible swamps and is a rare species with low density throughout its range. It is therefore possible that egret–Shoebill associations, in addition to being infrequent and highly seasonal, may have gone unnoticed.Item Observations on nesting of shoebill Balaeniceps rex and wattled crane Bugeranus carunculatus in Malagarasi wetlands, western Tanzania(2013-02) John, Jasson; Nahonyo, Cuthbert L.; Lee, Woo S.; Msuya, Charles A.The populations of shoebill Balaeniceps rex and wattled crane Bugeranus carunculatus are listed as ‘vulnerable’ by IUCN and threatened by habitat destruction and trapping (BirdLife International, 2012a). They both have narrow and disconnected distribution in sub-Saharan Africa along major water basins (Hancock, Kushlan & Kahl, 1992; Meine & Archibald, 1996). Their global population is small (<8000 birds for each species), and in Tanzania, numbers are in low hundreds (Dinesen & Baker, 2006; Beilfuss, Dodman & Urban, 2007). But yet, there is virtually no published information on nesting in Tanzania. The first and the only published breeding of wattled crane is that of Elliott (1983) from Southern highlands where wattled crane has almost been extirpated (Beilfuss, Dodman and Urban, 2007). Small viable populations for both species are found in Malagarasi wetlands. Basic ecological information of these threatened-flagship species is needed for both scientific and management purposes. In this article, we report observations of the first ground study on nests of shoebill and wattled crane in Tanzania, made between 2005 and 2011.