Nearly all of the colonists are very aggressive.Īfter 3 years of hiding and eating dehydrated food, the virus finally subsided enough in one area of town to start exploring. If they ever would come across another colony, the stronger colony would attack and destroy the other colony for recourses. There are groups of colonists, all separate from each other. The unlucky few, who were caught outside when the virus reached its peak, were poisoned and died. Most of us went into hiding, avoiding the airborne virus. An awareness programme for local farmers, land-users and residents should be initiated to promote the conservation of Gyps coprotheres in the area.īirdLife International (2022) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Blouberg.The virus is what started this all. The Blouberg vultures forage quite widely, regularly travelling to the plains north of the Soutpansberg (IBA ZA002) and into Botswana’s Tuli Block. The sudden loss of birds from the Karringmelkspruit colony in the Eastern Cape, where the colony collapsed from over 800 birds to none in approximately 25 years, serves as a warning that mismanagement of the larger colonies can result in dramatic population crashes over short periods of time. Breeding success can fluctuate alarmingly in this species. Recreational mountaineering, collisions with man-made structures, human encroachment and environmental pollution all threaten the survival of this colony. Vultures are used extensively for traditional, medicinal and ceremonial purposes and are targeted by rural residents who use poisoned carcasses to kill them.Depleted food supply, with subsequent loss of vital nutrients in the diet, may result in increased mortalities as a consequence of metabolic bone disease, osteodystrophy, and other physiological abnormalities. Although farmers seldom set traps to combat mammalian predators such as jackal, caracal and domestic dogs, poison is still used indiscriminately. The bulk of farming in the district is for cattle, game and other large stock. Poisonings of vultures, which are regularly recorded in the district, pose a potential threat to the colony. The Blouberg foothills also hold Platysaurus minor.īoth Blouberg East Nature Reserve (363 ha) and Blouberg West Nature Reserve (4,828 ha), which fall within the site, were declared in 1983. montiscaeruli is restricted to the Blouberg) have global ranges restricted to the Blouberg, Soutpansberg (IBA ZA002) and nearby Waterberg (IBA ZA006), although the latter species also occurs patchily elsewhere in the central Northern Province. Platysaurus guttatus and Lygodactylus nigropuncatus (endemic subspecies L. Non-bird biodiversity: The Blouberg is the only home to the reptile Platysaurus monotropis, which is endemic to this set of inselbergs. The surrounding woodland holds Bucorvus cafer, Eupodotis ruficrista, Mirafra passerina, Bradornis mariquensis, Turdoides bicolor, Cossypha humeralis, Cercotrichas paena, Calamonastes fasciolatus, Eremomela usticollis, Telophorus quadricolor, Eurocephalus anguitimens, Sporopipes squamifrons, Uraeginthus granatina and Estrilda erythronotos. The satellite colonies are only occasionally active. While most birds breed at the main colony, a few pairs breed elsewhere on the Blouberg, at satellite colonies such as Leipsig, Glenferness and Millbank. The cliffs at Blouberg regularly hold between 600 and 800 pairs of Gyps coprotheres, making it the world’s second-largest colony. Small patches of Afromontane forest are found in valleys and moist basins throughout Blouberg, with forest trees of Rapanea, Xymalos, Podocarpus and Trichocladus. The mountain’s higher slopes and plateau are covered in some areas by scattered Protea bushes. On the lower and mid-slopes, sourish mixed bushveld dominates, generally as an open savanna dominated by Acacia and Dichrostachys trees, with Combretum, Rhus, Grewia and Dombeya less common. The scrubby thornveld of the mountain slopes includes woody species of Phymaspermum, Lippia and Stoebe. The site is defined as the portion of the inselberg lying above the 1,100 m contour line.The mountain slopes are covered by north-eastern mountain sourveld. Peaks such as Sesuane (1,552 m), Lenare (1,385 m) and the summit Gamonnaasenamoriri (2,051 m) dominate the massif. This small rugged pinnacle rises sharply from the surrounding plateau that lies, on average, at 1,000 m. Blouberg is an isolated inselberg that lies to the west of the Soutpansberg range, some 80 km west of Louis Trichardt.