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Rumour has it that it is no longer politically correct to call your assistant a secretary. It seems as if secretaries are extinct, and assistants have taken their place.
We may not be able to rename them assistant birds, but we can certainly save our secretary birds from extinction.
Nonetheless, whether a boss, manager, assistant or secretary, you can assist secretary bird conservation this Secretary’s Day (Wednesday 4 September 2013).
In 2011 BirdLife South Africa launched a scientific project to assess and understand what is happening to our secretary birds who were uplisted to globally vulnerable in the same year. Since then they have gained a better understanding of the enormous distances these birds travel after they fledge, as well as the enormous threats facing them due to habitat loss and degradation.
© Hanneline Smit-Robinson
Meet BLiNG. BLiNG hatched late in 2012 at Sondela Game Reserve and was fitted with a tracking device when he was just seven weeks old. BLiNG recently astonished the team at BirdLife South Africa by taking off from his nest site in Limpopo and travelling all the way to Botswana. In three weeks BLiNG travelled no less than 1000 km!
For the first time ever the movements of fledgling secretary birds are being tracked from the time they leave their nests and natal area to the time they settle in a new area – travelling great distances to do so. Their movements are not restricted by political boundaries, which means that efforts to conserve these birds would require international collaboration.
© A Froneman
Many questions remain to be answered. Where do they go? Where do they feed? To answer these questions BirdLife South Africa wants to attach devices to at least another eight birds. This Secretary’s Day, honour your assistant by making a contribution to this conservation project. There will be no assistant birds to take their place.
© A Froneman
© A Froneman
© A Froneman
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