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17 January 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Leonie Bolleurs
Prof Aliza le Roux and Dr Mpho Romoejane
Prof Aliza le Roux and Dr Mpho Ramoejane (camera-trap expert) at a wetland area in the Golden Gate National Park, searching for the rare white-winged flufftail.

The White-winged Flufftail, a highly endangered bird species, was spotted less than 70 km from the UFS Qwaqwa Campus, home of the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU). In collaboration with BirdLife South Africa, the ARU is conducting a study to find out if this species also made its home in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park.

This rare species has so far only been found at three sites in South Africa.


Study to benefit local community

One of the ARU’s goals is to undertake research that will benefit the local communities, including SANParks. Should it be confirmed that these rare birds are also found in the area, the status of the Golden Gate Highlands National Park in the Important Birding Area (IBA) directory is likely to increase.

Prof Aliza le Roux, Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology and Entomology on the Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) and affiliated to the ARU, is conducting the study. She is also involved in other wetland studies.

According to Prof Le Roux, it is very difficult to find the bird. In a study, Prof Le Roux, Dr Sandy-Lynn Steenhuisen (botanist in the Department of Plant Sciences), and Dr Ralph Clark (ARU Director) have been deploying song meters in a rolling grid in the wetland areas, recording all bird noises around dawn and dusk. This is a non-invasive method to record bird sounds and helps to maintain the health of wetlands.

With these song meters they are trying to create a soundscape of the wetlands, recording all the sounds of the area by changing the location of the song meters every two weeks to cover the entire 2 km-long wetland area. Soundscape ecology is a fairly new technique and could be an effective way of measuring wetland health in high-altitude settings.

“In contrast with camera traps, song meters do not need a direct line of sight to record the presence of a specific bird – it can pick up songs from 150 m away in all directions. Camera traps may, however, be useful for adding visual confirmation of any bird’s presence, which is useful for a species that has only been heard a few times. In fact, no recording of the White-winged Flufftail’s call is currently in the public domain,” says Dr Le Roux.


Collaboration with Japanese university

Using these recordings from the soundscape, the team identifies the different bird, frog, and insect sounds recorded. According to Prof Le Roux, they are fairly new to the process and she would like to learn more, specifically about the analysis of the song diversity. She is visiting researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan in early December to investigate the variety of tools available to effectively analyse terabytes of acoustic data. Researchers at OIST have done similar studies on soundscapes in Okinawa along an urban gradient, and their expertise as well as access to a supercomputer could boost this research significantly.

The Qwaqwa area is on the border of the White-winged Flufftail’s expected distribution range.

“Because they and their habitat are threatened,
we are not sure if they are in the area;
and whether they may only be here to breed.”
—Prof Aliza Le Roux,
Associate Professor, UFS.


“If we find that they did make the park their home, they will be more protected, as the park is a conservation area.”


Grasslands

Prof Aliza le Roux and Dr Mpho Ramoejane (camera-trap expert) at a wetland area in the Golden Gate National Park. The wetlands often get trampled, affecting the condition of the area. Interestingly, trampling improves conditions for flufftails, as the cattle open up spaces between the reeds.

Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

News Archive

UFS helps to renovate schools
2005-10-10

Photo gallery

About 250 hostel students of the University of the Free State's (UFS) main campus yesterday painted and renovated four schools in the black townships of Bloemfontein.  This was part of Kovsie Rag's new approach to be more directly involved with communities.

Students were transported with busses and performed tasks such as the painting of class rooms and outside walls and the cleaning and painting of gutters and window panes.  The painting was judged by a panel of judges, that included the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Frederick Fourie.  These points will contribute to the each hostel's final point in the Rag fund raising campaign for 2005/2006.

 

 

Some of the students who painted the gutters of Maboloka Primary School in Bochabelo were from the left Ms Tume Kowang (18) (first year student in B Accounting from NJ van der Merwe hostel); Ms  Gloria Mangwane (19) (third year student in B Sc Biochemy from NJ van der Merwe hostel); Ms Adri Ras (21) (second year student in Occupational Therapy from Emily Hobhouse hostel) and Ms Malandi Els (20) (third year student in B Exercise and Feeding from Emily Hobhouse hostel).

See attached media statement:

UFS Rag and Eimpa paints assist with upgrading of schools

The spirit of Ubuntu will this year be truly reflected in the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Rag community out reach programme when senior students from the 23 hostels on the Main Campus will visit four less-privileged schools in the Mangaung area on Saturday 8 October 2005 to assist these schools in the upgrading of facilities.

The same day (Saturday 8 October 2005) the UFS first year students will visit the neighbourhoods in Bloemfontein from 08:00-13:00 to raise funds on an Ubuntu donation lists for Rag 2005/2006.

The Ubuntu project was started about seven years ago and it has grown each year. In the past the project was associated with a fundraising leg and a hostel publicity leg.  This year the aim is to involve the community to demonstrate how important fundraising initiatives are to help those less-privileged. 
 
The schools that will be visited are Legae Intermediary School in Batho, Mothusi Primary School in Rocklands, and the Maboloka and Lesedi Primary Schools in Bochabelo.  The schools in the Manugaung area had until 31 August 2005 to complete a questionnaire identifying what assistance is needed.  The Rag office, with the help of professional consultants from Eimpa Paints, chose four schools and visited each one to determine material/s needed to complete the work. 

Eimpa Paints is a partner of the Ubuntu project and will be sponsoring all paint necessary to complete the work at the schools.  All other material/s needed will be supplied by the UFS Rag office.

The hostels are divided into project teams and will clean and paint gutters and window sills and paint the walls of classrooms and outside walls.  At Maboloka School for instance, a project team will also to paint a wall with colourful characters.

Media release
Issued by:  Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel:  (051) 401-2584
Cell:  083 645 2454
E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
7 October 2005

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