Scientific Services

Long-term monitoring of the southern ground hornbill population in Kruger National Park (KNP) started in 1969. More recently,  citizen science has been at the forefront of this monitoring project.  Current data suggest that 180 breeding southern ground hornbill groups are occupying 88% of KNP, making it the largest population in South Africa.

Southern ground-hornbills (SGH, Bucorvus leadbeateri), also known as “thunderbirds” (Photos: Lucy Kemp and Jarryd Alexander)

A new monitoring project of southern ground-hornbills (Bucorvus leadbeateri), also known as “thunderbirds” (a local name referring to them being observed with the first good summer rains), commenced in November 2020 in the Kruger National Park (KNP). The species has a nationally endangered status and KNP is a key focus in the national monitoring plan because it supports the largest population of breeding females. Long-term monitoring of the KNP southern ground hornbill population started in 1969 and has provided vital information on changes in breeding success due to climate change and other factors. In KNP currently, 88% of the pentads (five-minute geographical grid ~8.3 km²) have thunderbirds (Fig. 1), suggesting that there are 180 breeding groups in KNP (or about 60% of the breeding female population). The remaining pentads do not necessarily mean hornbill absence as these localities are mainly in wilderness areas with minimal tourist traffic and therefore, have lower reporting rates by citizen observers. KNP rangers are now assisting with sightings in these low tourist areas.

A key concern is that dispersing individuals from KNP have little safe habitat to move into and establish their own territories, ultimately resulting in zero population growth. Fortunately, a new MSc project (conducted by Patience Shito) will be shedding some light on this as she focuses on thunderbirds establishing in the communal areas west of KNP.

Southern Ground-Hornbill (SGH) presence in KNP. Monitoring uses the South African pentad system, which is roughly the size of a SGH territory. Black pentads represent areas where SGH has been documented between 2009 and 2019, suggesting that these birds occupied 270 of the 300+ pentads (88% of KNP) during this period. During 2020, SGH activity was observed in 181 (orange) pentads and in 2021, in 198 (green) pentads. These are preliminary results and pentad checks are ongoing (Figure by Lucy Kemp & Jarryd Alexander).

Although it appears that monitoring is being conducted across a large proportion of Kruger, much of this data is historic. To help with recent information, we started to place posters (in November 2020) in and around Kruger, calling on tourists and staff to submit their sightings. This helped to spread awareness and generate greater interest in the species. Incredibly, since the posters went up, observers submitted >5000 observations allowing discovery of new nest sites and the recording of detailed group activities around nests. So look out for the posters and the thunderbirds in KNP, submit your sightings, and be part of this citizen science-led conservation effort!

This article was originally published in the 2021/2022 Research Report.