Robert E Simmons | University of Cape Town (original) (raw)

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Papers by Robert E Simmons

ABSTRACT - An ecological difference between North American and European populations of Circus cya... more ABSTRACT - An ecological difference between North American and European populations of Circus cyaneus is the apparent lack of replacement clutches laid by the North American form (the Northern Harrier) on the failure of the first clutch. I present several ines of evidence ...

Ostrich, 1997

Fox, V.E., Lindeque, P.M., Simmons, R.E., Berry, H.H., Brain, C. &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp... more Fox, V.E., Lindeque, P.M., Simmons, R.E., Berry, H.H., Brain, C. &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Braby, R. 1997. Flamingo ‘rescue’ in Etosha National Park, 1994: technical, conservation and economic considerations. Ostrich 68 (2–4): 72–76.During April 1994,144 Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber chicks were taken from Etosha Pan, Namibia, following drying of the shallow water and the death of hundreds of chicks. The captured chicks ranged

Waterbirds: The International Journal of Waterbird Biology, 2000

... The paper could not have been written without the benefit of discussions with Julius Arinaitw... more ... The paper could not have been written without the benefit of discussions with Julius Arinaitwe,Wendy Borel-lo, Sue Kieswetter (Avian Demography Unit), Tim Liv-ersedge, Graham McCulloch, Oliver Nasirwe, and Chris Tuite, and the data collected by African waterfowl ...

Ostrich, 2010

... Cape Town: Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. pp 464465. Simmons RE, Boix-Hinzen ... more ... Cape Town: Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. pp 464465. Simmons RE, Boix-Hinzen C, Barnes KN, Jarvis AM, Robertson A. 1998a. Important Bird Areas of Namibia. In: Barnes KN (ed.), The Important Bird Areas of southern Africa. Johannesburg: BirdLife Page ...

The Journal of Animal Ecology, 1986

Ostrich, 1993

Simmons, R.E. & Mendelsohn, J.M. 1993. A critical review of cartwheeling flights of raptors. ... more Simmons, R.E. & Mendelsohn, J.M. 1993. A critical review of cartwheeling flights of raptors. Ostrich 64: 13–24. Aerial cartwheelin flights of raptors, particularly eagles, are spectacular interactions in which birds lock feet and fall earthward while cartwheeling about a common axis. This is traditionally seen as courtship behaviour, despite the fact that injuries and some fatalities have been reported. We solicited unpublished accounts from 20 raptor biologists world-wide and reviewed published evidence for the courtship interpretation among 39 species of large and small falconiforms. In 82% of 107 cases in which detailed observations were available whirling flights were aggressive interactions between territorial birds and intruders. Cartwheeling also occurs as play behaviour and as aggression during parent-offspring conflicts. Cartwheeling in Fish Eagles Haliaeetus vocifer was confirmed as mainly intra-sexual aggression by T. Liversedge (pers.comm), who induced over 200 cartwheeling events in 5 years b...

African Journal of Marine Science, 2011

... Robert E. Simmons, Philip E. Stander, Phoebe Barnard and Guy Cowlishaw In their stimulating a... more ... Robert E. Simmons, Philip E. Stander, Phoebe Barnard and Guy Cowlishaw In their stimulating article, Lawes and du Plessis I ask if there is a role for the disci-pline of behavioural ecology (that is, seek-ing evolutionary explanations for behav-ioural decisions made by ...

Poster presentado a la Biodiversity SA Conference, celebrada en Cape Town (Sudafrica) del 2 al 6 ... more Poster presentado a la Biodiversity SA Conference, celebrada en Cape Town (Sudafrica) del 2 al 6 de diciembre de 2013.

Gabar, 2013

Jules Pierre (1807-1873), Jean Baptist Edouard (1810-1868) and Joseph Alexis Verreaux (?-1868) we... more Jules Pierre (1807-1873), Jean Baptist Edouard (1810-1868) and Joseph Alexis Verreaux (?-1868) were sons of the famous Parisian taxidermist Jacques Philippe Verreaux, who founded the maison Verreaux. The institution was primarily involved in the trade of natural history specimens, and through this enterprise arguably contributed much to the advancement of science in the 19th century.

We go onto argue that the name for the African Black Eagle Verreaux's Eagle (sometimes spelled Verreauxs') should indeed be Verreaux's as it was named for one brother (Jules) as the best known of the three brothers.

We compare behavioural repertoires of breeding Circus cyaneus in a dense eastern Canadian populat... more We compare behavioural repertoires of breeding Circus cyaneus in a dense eastern Canadian population with published accounts of behaviours from other parts of North America and Europe. Canadian harriers exhibited behaviours previously unre corded in North America, such as male and female mate rejection, increased court ship displays by polygynous vs monogamous males, a decline in the number and in tensity of courtship displays with declining vole Microtus pennsylvanicus abundance, male initiation of nest building, parent-offspring recognition, and a high incidence of late nestling starvation due to male desertion. Populations in Canada and Orkney dif fered in the timing and cause of chick starvation and in the extent to which adult and immature males and females displayed. Other apparent differences between popula tions, such as male nest building, male nest visitation, male egg guarding and the ad vantage of nest defence, reflect alternative interpretations of similar behaviours. We conclude that behavioural and ecological differences between harriers on the two continents are negligible, and that their inclusion as one full species is well founded.

Ostrich, 2001

... four species of south-ern African Sandgrouse, namely Double-banded Sandgrouse, P. bicinctus, ... more ... four species of south-ern African Sandgrouse, namely Double-banded Sandgrouse, P. bicinctus, Burchell's Sand grouse P. burchelli ... toNovember (McLachlan 1985).No previous study ofNamaqua Sandgrouse breeding seasons has quantitatively related the tim-ing ofbreeding ...

Bird Conservation International, 2007

Species that show obvious population declines are relatively easy to categorize as globally threa... more Species that show obvious population declines are relatively easy to categorize as globally threatened under IUCN Red List criteria. However, species whose populations are highly concentrated at a few inaccessible sites that are unprotected or habitat-threatened and then disperse are more difficult to pigeon-hole. Here we re-assess the conservation status of one such species – the Chestnut-banded Plover Charadrius pallidus – that occurs across Africa in specialized, inaccessible and arid habitat. Wetland bird counts from 1991 to the present allow us to determine a new world population estimate of about 17,830 birds. This allows us to determine a new 1% level and we identified only eight sites in southern and East Africa where these plovers congregate in numbers >1% when non-breeding. There are only five other sites that hold more than 100 birds, indicating that the species is not simply widely dispersed across suitable habitats. Simultaneous counts across southern and East Africa...

Global Ecology and Conservation

Ostrich, 1997

Waterbirds: The International Journal of Waterbird Biology, 2000

Ostrich, 2010

The Journal of Animal Ecology, 1986

Ostrich, 1993

African Journal of Marine Science, 2011

Gabar, 2013

Ostrich, 2001

Bird Conservation International, 2007

Global Ecology and Conservation

Of Namibia’s 687 species, 71 are ranked as Threatened or Near-Threatened under the ‘new’ IUCN cla... more Of Namibia’s 687 species, 71 are ranked as Threatened or Near-Threatened under the ‘new’ IUCN classification. Of these, one, the elusive Egyptian Vulture, is considered
Nationally Extinct (as a breeding species); nine species are Critically Endangered, including the usual suspects
such as Cape Vulture, Blue Crane (there are approximately 35 individuals left around Etosha) and Pel’s Fishing Owl; 25 species are Endangered, dominated bywetland species (such as herons, storks and cranes), marine species (for example albatrosses and petrels) and raptors (Martial
Eagle, and Black and Pallid harriers).There are 13 Vulnerable species, among them flamingos, vultures and terns. In the Near-Threatened category are 23 species, again dominated by marine, wetland and raptorial birds, such as Damara Tern, Maccoa Duck and the Peregrine
Falcon. This short review reveals that Namibia’sRed Data birds are over-represented in three groups: marine or coastal birds (20 species: 28 per cent), scavengers and
raptors (19 species: 27 per cent), and wetland species (18 species: 25 per cent). The other groups include three endemics which are classified as Threatened (Violet
Wood-hoopoe, Rüppell’s Parrot and Damara Tern), large terrestrial species like the bustards, which fly as frequently into power lines as they do in South Africa,
and a smattering of small species (for example,Cinderella Waxbill, Sclater’s Lark and European Roller). Namibia’s first Red Data book on birds has taken more than a decade to reach fruitio, but is now available.

In the tangled bank , at the conclusion of his masterpiece The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin,... more In the tangled bank , at the conclusion of his masterpiece The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin, mused on the ecological forces that shape and continue to shape the species that live there:
"It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about....and to reflect that these eleborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner have all been produced by the laws acting around us."

It was at an international meeting of ecologists in Prince ton, New Jersey, United States, where ... more It was at an international meeting of ecologists in Prince ton, New Jersey, United States, where I fi rst met the imposing fi gure of Doug Mock. Doug is a disconcerting character with his broad American accent, his esteemed
reputation as the doyen of sibling aggression studies, and his habit of looking at you with first one eye then the other. Doug’s squint makes it impossible to know whether or not he’s concentrating on you, but one thing he said in jest irritated me and stuck in my memory long after our meeting. He said that most people who study raptors do so just because they are stunning, spectacular birds and not because they can tell us anything interesting that other commoner species cannot. He laughingly labeled raptor biologists as “raptor bozos.” Th is one remark galvanized me to prove him wrong— to make sure
that even though I loved the thrill of chasing and studying such spectacular birds, the raptor studies I did in Africa had a worthwhile scientific goal. I met with Doug because I was passionately interested in solving the mystery
of why some large eagles allow the killing of their second chick in the nest. This behavior is called “siblicide,” and describes the killing of a sibling shortly after the second egg hatches. Th e senior chick mercilessly attacks its
newly hatched kin until it is either dead or so intimidated that it no longer calls for food and starves to death. This behavior has been described as “biological waste” by some. Th is I knew (in my arrogance) to be wrong, and
Doug’s mocking pushed me to study a species that bred in large numbers so that I could undertake some simple field experiments to help solve the mystery of siblicide.

The exotically named Baia dos Tigres (Bay of Tigers) is one of the most remote and inaccessible p... more The exotically named Baia dos Tigres (Bay of Tigers) is one
of the most remote and inaccessible places in southern
Africa. Positioned at the northern end of the Namib Desert,
on the Angolan coast, this is a land of sand dunes, wind,
rocky plains and ghostly islands. Getting a chance to travel
there and do my own research was a dream come true. As
a member of a larger biodiversity initiative between South
Africa and Angola, I had set myself the challenge of solving
a mystery and, in doing so, I fulfilled a lifelong ambition
to visit the Angolan desert.