Sagittarius serpentarius, as the scientists like to call the secretary bird, is one of South Africa’s most iconic creatures; it is even featured on the country’s coat of arms. But secretary birds are in trouble; once a common sight stalking through the South African bush, their numbers are plummeting. Beryl Wilson, the only zoologist in South Africa’s remote Northern Cape, is a leading expert on the animals, birds and snakes of the Kalahari Desert and she is seriously concerned about secretary birds. So she approached Tshipi é Ntle Manganese Mining, the South African company building the Tshipi Borwa manganese mine and asked for its help to find out more about the habits and movements of these quite charming and rather eccentric-looking birds.
Tshipi has a strong commitment to the environment and to social responsibility so it agreed to fund a special tracking device which will be fitted to a secretary bird fledgling. South Africa’s Endangered Wildlife Trust agreed to be a partner in the project and provided technological and design assistance. Tshipi’s only condition for the provision of the funding was that the bird must not be compromised or hurt in any way.
The secretary bird has a body of an eagle, the neck of a crane and a crest of quill-like feathers that are all its own. Secretary birds can barely be bothered to fly, preferring to stalk through the bush peering down from their 1.3-metre height and poking at things like lizards, snakes, young birds, bird eggs, and sometimes dead animals.
