www.wildneighbours.co.za

Scurrying mongoose, shy grysbok, an owl at dusk or the bark of a baboon. Our wild neighbours are the birds and small mammals that live amongst us, moving cautious-ly between our gardens and what remains of their natural habitats around Cape Town. This easy-to-read pocket guide is filled with thoughts and suggestions about living in harmony alongside wildlife in our city.

Photographs by Noel Ashton and Liz Hardman wildliving with our

neighboursA Nature Connection Initiative by Belinda Ashton

Text and layout | Belinda AshtonEditing | Karoline HanksPhotographs | Noel Ashton (noelashton.com)and Liz Hardman (natureontheedge.com)Cover photograph | Marco Tonoli Additional photographs | p5 Jacques Kuyler, City of Cape Town; p22 Rute Martin; p63 Aletris Neils, Conservation CATalyst

p10 Jans Canon;

contents

Printing | Trident Press

ISBN | 978-0-620-55959-1© The Nature ConnectionCape Town, South AfricaMobile 072 063 4676envirolink@iafrica.comwww.wildneighbours.co.zaPublished | 2013

Many of us are drawn towards these wild landscapes of our city, where we can spend time exploring the scenic mountain trails, or leaving our footprints alongside the spoor of wild otters on one of our many sandy beaches. For those of us living on the urban edge, our lives are in-fused daily with visual and visceral connections to the natural world, and at any given moment, we can experience a glimpse into this fascinating realm of wild nature that exists on our doorstep.

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Living in the fairest Cape, we are so fortunate to inhabit such a beautiful part of the world, where the unique plant and animal diversity is still very much a part of our lives.

all things wild and wonderful

Since my childhood I have felt a deep connection to this nat-ural environment, and specifi-cally to the birds and small creatures that live alongside us on the Peninsula.This interest has grown in recent years, when so much of all that is wild and free is being threatened by the relentless pressures of urbanisation. Through this booklet I share my interest in urban wildlife, and hope to inspire an aware-ness of our wild neighbours and the enduring narrative of our shared place on earth.

1 Introduction2 A message from IFAW3 All creatures great and small4 The world of wild nature5 Wild lives amongst us6 Living within a wider world7 A city of incredible biodiversity8 Diminishing natural habitats9 Small sanctuaries within our city1011 This land was theirs too12 Adapting to an urban environment13 A challenging life on the urban edge14 Introducing a few wild neighbours28 Birds and wildlife in the garden39 Living alongside wildlife49 Threats to local wildlife58 Connecting with nature

Urban wildlife around the world

all creatures great and small

Our wild neighbours are the birds, small mammals and other creatures that live along-side us in our city, moving cau-tiously between our gardens and what remains of their natural habitats. Many of these creatures are nocturnal and therefore sel-dom seen, often only leaving tell-tale signs as a clue to their night-time activities.

For instance, shallow diggings show where a Cape Porcupine has searched for bulbs, while small tracks leading through the fynbos reveal evidence of a little mongoose on the hunt for insects. Knowing what to look out for opens our eyes to the intricate wonders and workings of the natural world.

the world of wild natureTravelling over the rocky, fyn-bos slopes of Ou Kaapseweg on a trip into town, I invariably catch my breath as I summit the mountain and look out over the immensity of the city below, stretching far towards the horizon, a vast and com-plex network of roads, houses and shopping malls. To the left the imposing peaks of the Table Mountain chain glow in the morning light, ochre rocks offset by the receding shadows as the day slowly warms up, and I am reminded of another world living alongside us in our bustling city.

And this other world is the secretive domain of the little grysbok and inquisitive mon-goose, of nocturnal genets and porcupines. It is a world where the bark of a baboon evokes deep primal mem-ories, and where fish eagles soar the thermals high above the waters of Zandvlei.This other world, the world of wild nature, is inhabited by remnant populations of birds and small mammals that once thrived across the Peninsula, species that now inhabit a twilight zone as they live tenu-ously amongst us on the urban edge of our city.

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The call of a nightjar at dusk, the gurgling of a mountain stream as it tumbles over mossy rocks,

holding onto all that is wild and free...

From the very beginning, we have lived alongside the animals. We have feared them, revered them and de-pended on them throughout time. All that they imbue, the wild and untamed spirits of these wild lives, is deeply and irretrievably entwined within our own complex narrative. Through the animals, we are able to connect more mean-

ingfully with the earth and with our own wild spirits.And through the animals, knowing that they are out there, living their secretive lives far amongst the kloofs and krantze of our mountains, we are reminded and re-assured of our own sense of belonging within the immen-sity of the wider living world.

wild lives amongst us

If you would like to learn more about the plants and small mammals of our city, I recommend a trip to the BIODIVERSITY GARDEN in Green Point, a beautiful space where you can discover the many wonders of our natural heritage.

Cape Town is a city of excep-tional natural beauty, with the urban landscape offset by the rugged coastlines of the Atlan-tic and Indian oceans, and then the vast Table Mountain chain with its deep ravines and forested gullies. Wherever we look, the city is literally surrounded by a natur-al environment that is quite spectacular in its diversity and scenic wonders. And what makes Cape Town even more unique is that we are situated in the heart of the smallest plant kingdom in the world, the Cape Floral King-

dom, which consists of just over 9 000 plants of which around 3 300 are found here. Even more incredible, many of these plants are endemic, meaning they occur nowhere else in the world!Although at first glance our mountains appear unspoiled, the reality is that many of the city's natural habitats are threatened due to invasive alien vegetation and the ever-expanding human footprint.Conserving local ecosystems and the biodiversity they support is one of the more urgent priorities of our time.

All life is inter-connected, each living being depen- dent on others to maintain the ecological balance of

the earth. Plants need pollinators, predators and prey have been intertwined in a dance for survival since the dawn of time.This understanding was held sacred by the ancient people of years long gone by, who understood with implicit knowing that man is one thread in the complex web of life. And that what we do to the web, we ultimately and inevitably do to ourselves.Increasingly we are seeing that how we interact with the world, how we nurture, conserve and protect wilderness and wild nature, reflects intimately in the quality of our own lives.

living within a wider world

Within each of us is a connec-tion to the earth that has evolved over the millions of years since the human jour-ney first began. I sense that one of the reasons why we find such peace and tranquili-ty when we are out in nature, is simply that we are returning to an environment that was once deeply familiar to us. And through this experience, we connect again with a dis-tant memory of having once lived in close harmony with the land, when the birds and animals were our brothers, and we had a deep sense of

belonging to the sun and the moon and the wild land-scapes around us.Out in nature, we lose our-selves within the ebb and flow of the earth's natural cycles; we immerse in the physical sensation of walking, explor-ing, smelling, touching, being present in each moment. The breath of the wind, the gentle call of a dove...These experiences awaken our imaginations and stir our souls, reminding, evoking, taking us back to our deepest connections with the earth and its vast community of life.

a city of incredible biodiversity

For people living in many of the great cities around the world, where age-old ties to the land have all but disappeared, the occasional encounter with urban wildlife offers a thread of connection to a time when we once lived close to nature.From sightings of a coyote in uptown New York, to a fox rum-maging in the wastebin of a London townhouse, as the fields and forests of their nat-ural territories disappear, so more and more animals are finding refuge amongst us, where the year-round availa-bility of food offers respite in a rapidly changing world.

Those communities coming into regular contact with wild-life are becoming increasingly inventive in how they live alongside these animals.Here in the Cape, we have trained monitors working from dawn until dusk keeping the baboons out of urban edge suburbs, while in the United States, electric fencing and a loud firecracker device called a bear-banger, are used to keep bears away.Exploring ways to live in peace with these wild neighbours, helps to nurture and restore harmony between ourselves and the natural world.

urban wildlife around the world

this land was theirs too

And to think that lions once stalked game on the grassy plains of the Cape flats, and leopards crept up on bickering baboons as they chased one another with wild abandon across the lower slopes of Table Mountain. And that deep in the muddy waters of seasonal wetlands hippos wallowed whilst African Fish Eagles called out from trees along the banks. It is almost impossible to vis-ualise this landscape, and it is only when looking up towards the fynbos slopes of Kirsten-bosch and watching the oro-graphic clouds dance across

the tallest peaks, that I can appreciate how truly beautiful it all once was.Today, the accumulative im-pacts from a thriving and ever-expanding metropolis that exerted such pressures on the land have obliterated most wildlife species, and those animals that remain living amongst us are descendants of some of the smaller, more resilient animals that once, a very long time ago, inhabited all of the fairest Cape. The fact that they have sur-vived against such immense adversity is a testament to their adaptive characters.

It is hard to imagine that only a few hundred years ago, our city and its surrounds were literally teeming with wildlife, and that its forests and sheer mountain gorges concealed bird and mammal species that astonished early explorers to the region.

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adapting to an urban environment

Most towns and cities around the world developed in areas that were abundant in wildlife and natural resources, where human endeavour flourished

these life-sustaining gifts from nature.Yet the historical archive has revealed that in almost all instances where small towns gradually expanded to be-come cities, indigenous wild-life was systematically elimin-ated through the intense demands of urbanisation. And certainly here in the Cape, the constraints imposed by a life restricted to the Peninsula, hemmed in on all sides by suburbia, has led over time to unique conservation challen-

through access to

ges, including for example predator–prey imbalances and the loss of genetic diver-sity, our friends the baboons coming foremost to mind.Despite all these pressures however, over eighty species of small mammals still survive amongst us, where the year-round availability of food, water and shelter provide a fairly stable environment in which to live. In recent years, these animals have experienced significant and ongoing changes to their natural habitat, and as much as they have had to adapt to our way of life, we too can make small changes to try and adapt to theirs.

a challenging life on the urban edge

I have much respect for the small animals that live amongst us. Not only are our fynbos mountains covered with nutrient-poor and often indigestible plants, but the extreme weather patterns of dry, hot summers and wet winters make the Peninsula fairly inhos-pitable for even the hardiest of species.

hold waste. Through continu-ally exploiting different food sources and taking advantage of the sanctuary offered by our verdant gardens, the city’s wildlife manage to exist along-side us. But life on the urban edge is not always easy, and most animals are forced to move secretively amongst us, con-tending with road traffic, enclosed properties that have barbed wire and electric fen-cing, predatory domestic pets and, at times, an attitude of general apathy towards all matters wild.

One of the realities of this scenario is that many animals need to cover fairly extensive ranges in their daily search for food, with their territories fre-quently criss-crossing both urban and natural habitats.Most animals survive as they are hardy generalists and able to adapt to the challenges of life in the fynbos, for instance baboons have now learned to feed on shellfish to supple-ment protein in their diet.Others adopt more robust survival tactics, scavenging in roadside bins or foraging for scraps amongst our house-

Chacma Baboon Papio ursinus

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introducing a few wild neighbours

The Peninsula's baboons are famously Africa's southern-most primates and have lived across the mountains of the Cape for thousands of years. In recent times, as our sub-urbs encroach on previously wild areas, baboons have come into increasing contact with people, almost always over food and often to the detriment of the animal.Baboons are highly intelligent animals, with complex social hierarchies dominated by an alpha male.

When a troop becomes accus-tomed to finding food in our suburbs, this leads to many problems – for people the stress of having one’s home raided, and for the animals, the threat of being shot at, poisoned or knocked over by speeding vehicles.Spending quiet time obser-ving baboons in the wild can be a life-changing experience and it is a privilege that they still live alongside us, even though our relationship is tenuous at best.

Visitors to Cape Town are often disappointed by the absence of larger mammals in our national park. This is because in fynbos, the shrubby vegetation type generally supports smaller mammal species who live mainly nocturnal lives, and so it takes a certain amount of time and effort to gradually learn their hidden secrets.

For those who do spend time outdoors exploring nature, the mountains and open areas of the Cape Peninsula reveal a wealth of wildlife diversity – from the shy, diminutive her-bivores like the grysbok who browse selectively within the fynbos; to hardy rodents like striped field mice, Cape Ger-bils and subterranean mole rats; and then the small pre-dators like caracal and genets who use camouflage and stealth to ambush their prey.

The more visible species like baboons are often seen for-aging along the roadside en route to Cape Point, providing great opportunities to observe these fascinating animals going about their daily lives.From the Verreaux Eagles that fly high above Chapman's Peak, to the porcupines and small mongoose that live on the mountains above villages like Kommetjie and Scar-borough, the Peninsula is still a haven for wildlife.

Large-spotted GenetGenetta tigrina

tail tip is dark brown or blacklarger rust brown spots light almost white chinlength +/- 85 110 cm–

tail tip is off-whitesmaller dark spots dark chinlength +/- 86 100 cm–

large-spotted genet small-spotted genet

is it a large or a small-spotted genet?

Cape Grey Mongoose Galerella pulverulenta

MONGOOSE ENCOUNTER We had returned from a walk at Silver-mine and whilst having tea near the dam, a mongoose suddenly appeared from out of the nearby scrub. After scratching himself and looking around, he sat down and for a while just stared at us, and then the wind stirred the grasses and he dashed off, following a hidden path through the dense undergrowth.

Dashing across our busy roads, foraging in wastebins, scratching amongst the leaf litter in the fynbos searching for grubs and insects, the mongoose is without doubt one of my favourite small mammals. They are very skit-tish and shy little animals, but are active throughout the day,

which makes sightings and chance encounters easier. They have dark, speckled grey bodies with long, bushy tails which are held close to the ground as they move about.Although generally solitary in nature, they are occasionally seen in pairs.

What could be more exciting than having a genet passing by during its evening foraging. They are charismatic animals who will quite happily visit for any opportunistic snacking around the evening fire! Also a nocturnal species, the genet still manages to live amongst us on the Peninsula although less common in recent years.

During the day they rest up in hollows in trees or logs and venture out at night to hunt for rodents, insects and small birds. They are very beautiful animals, with spotted coats and black and rust-coloured ringed tails. Their dark tail tips are diagnostic of this species and assist with their identi-fication.

When you next visit the coast, keep a close lookout for an otter's latrine, which consists of droppings found on rocks near the water's edge. Known as 'scat' the droppings contain bits of crushed crab shells and fish bones.

Cape Clawless Otter Aonyx capensis

Cape Grysbok Raphicerus melanotis

Often my only experience of the shy grysbok is following its tracks leading through sandy patches of coastal fynbos.Small middens of 1 cm-long droppings are also a tell-tale sign of their whereabouts.Amazingly they live quite close to our suburbs, emerging at

dusk to feed on leaves and young shoots amongst the fynbos. They are quite a small antelope and are easy to identify as they have a dis-tinctive hunched posture and a reddish-brown coat with noticeable white flecks. The males have short, spiky horns.

GRYSBOK ENCOUNTER It was early one evening and by chance I looked out the window and saw a Cape Grysbok grazing amongst the wild figs at the back of the house. As I watched, he moved delicately through the long grasses, his russet coat gleaming in the sunlight. Grysbok are timid animals, always on the alert, but they are also extremely tenacious, living alongside us on the urban edge and contending with the myriad threats imposed by modern-day life in the suburbs.

A ramble along the False Bay or Atlantic coastlines will often reveal signs of otters living in our midst. Inhabiting musky-smelling holts in dense vege-tation beyond the highwater mark, the otters emerge at dawn and in the early evening to hunt for crabs, octopus and fish. Their droppings have a noticeably pungent odour and are found near both their fresh and salt water habitats.

As their name suggests they do not have claws on their five fingers and toes and this assists with identifying their spoor across a sandy beach. Occasionally otters are haras-sed by dogs or get caught up in discarded fishing nets, but they generally live fairly suc-cessfully on the Peninsula. It is always exhilarating watch-ing otters out at sea hunting from their ocean larder!

Rock Hyrax (Dassie)Procavia capensis

It is not unusual to be sitting on a rocky outcrop admiring the view when suddenly a harsh bark echoes from the rocks below this is the alarm–

call of the dassie, who has probably spotted a bird of prey hovering above. Found across the Peninsula, dassies live in colonies of usually one male to a group of females and are active throughout the day, feeding on grass and leaves. Soft pads on their feet help them move with great agility amongst the rocks and crevices of their mountain homes. Of interest is the fact that they can even climb trees to get to ripe shoots and berries.

Little striped field mice, identifiable with the four dark stripes along their backs, have a wide distribution and often find refuge amongst the dense foliage in our gardens, where they feed on seeds, plants and insects. Watching these little rodents going about their daily lives, dashing through the summer grasses, offers a fleeting window into the world of wild nature.

Not many people realise that the beautiful quill products on display in shops around the country have been made using quills from porcupines that have been killed. By refusing to purchase quill products, you can help put an end to this exploitative trade.

Cape Porcupine Hystrix africaeaustralis

If you hear an unusual rattling sound outside at night, you could have a porcupine visitor in your garden! Africa's largest rodent lives fairly successfully on the Peninsula, lying low in burrows during the day and emerging at night to feast on roots and bulbs. With their striking black and

white quills and spiny head-crests, porcupines are very attractive animals that lead monogamous lives, producing only between two to three off-spring a year. Being nocturnal as well as near-sighted, they are espe-cially vulnerable to speeding vehicles.

Caracal Felis caracal

Working to conserve wildlife and wild places in an increasingly fragmented world...

It is wonderful to know that one can still catch a glimpse of a predator like the caracal out hunting in the early evening.Although not common on the Peninsula, they do continue to live alongside us and are occasionally seen by people walking on the mountains. They also sometimes venture into the suburbs adjoining the urban edge searching for food

or merely passing through.Caracal are generally solitary animals, and the absence of larger predators as competi-tors over their preferred prey of dassies and rodents, plays a role in their continued survi-val on the Peninsula.They have distinctive black ear tufts, with a russet coat and white underbelly, and their tails are visibly short.

The tracks of the Water Mongoose are often all you will see of this rather elusive species. They live on the coast and near inland waterways where they feed in the shallows on small fish, frogs and crabs. With their coarse coats and shaggy tails, they are quite distinctive from the smaller Cape grey mongoose.

One can still catch a glimpse of a magni-ficent Verreaux’s Eagle as it soars above Noordhoek peak or hunts for dassies near the upper cable station on Table Mountain. Their numbers have declined in recent years, with only one known breeding pair left in our mountains.

Large mounds of excavated sand are evi-dence of a Cape Dune Molerat, who have formidable incisors that are used to feed on subterranean bulbs and tubers. I have watched in amazement as an entire half-metre high spiky plant was pulled under-ground by one of these sizeable rodents!

Once hunted to extinction on the Peninsula, Klipspringers have now been reintroduced into their former range on Table Mountain and in the Cape of Good Hope reserve, where they can occasionally be seen standing on some steep outcrop or jumping with agility amongst the rocks.

species estimate for the Peninsula –

3350 plants 60 reptiles364 birds 27 amphibians83 mammals 8 freshwater fish

Invertebrates (not known)

nature encounters

I had an opportunity to encounter a Honey Badger at the SPCA’s Wildlife Unit, a fierce and feisty carnivore that occurs on the outskirts of our city. As generalists they have a varied diet that includes snakes and small rodents, and a penchant for honey that brings them into hostile and often fatal contact with bee keepers.

Although not abundant on the Peninsula, one can still catch sight of the small, slender Cape Fox, which lives in hidden dens amongst rocks on the mountains. Emerging at night to hunt for insects and rodents, they are easy to identify with their russet coats and long, bushy tails.

Of the thirteen species of tortoise found in South Africa, eight occur in the Western Cape, making us what is known as a ‘tor-toise hotspot’. The rarest and most threatened of them all is the Geometric Tortoise which is endemic to the Renoster-veld of the southwestern Cape.

a porcupine’s menu

Porcupines enjoy eating a wide range of bulb species including for example -

arum lily

gladiolus

iris

They seem less partial to plants like agapanthus, can-delabra, clivia and wild garlic.

freesia

babiana

ixia

signs of the Cape Porcupine

The little mongooses that are fre-quently seen scurrying across the busy roads on the urban edge are usually fleet of foot and therefore not easy to observe for long. These photos will help you to iden-tify their tracks and droppings so that you can confirm your sighting and also work out where they have foraged amongst the fynbos.

Looking closely at their spoor, we can see that although they have five toes, each with a sharp claw, only four toes are visible when they move across soft sand. Also of interest is that the tracks from the hind foot register over the front tracks.

Their droppings are quite thin and elongated, filled with bits of fur and remnants of insects enjoyed during a recent meal.(To see more detailed images, I re-commend Chris and Tilde Stuart’s informative book ‘Tracks & Signs’)

One of Cape Town's nocturnal residents is the Cape Porcupine, which inhabits concealed bur-rows and rock shelters all along our mountains, venturing out under the cover of darkness to dine on geophytes and other delicacies in the fynbos biome.

Signs of porcupine activity are often evident along well-worn paths, where their num-erous shallow diggings reveal their night-time activities.

Discarded half-eaten bulbs and tubers are another calling card of this fascinating animal, who has a reputation for leaving partially-eaten vegetables, to the dismay and frustration of crop farmers across the country.

Another sign to look out for is their droppings, noticeably short pellets that are clustered to-gether and comprise remnants of fibrous plant matter.

And of course, it is always exciting coming across a porcu-pine quill on the mountains, a sign of a healthy functioning ecosystem on our doorstep!

who has passed this way...

For me, the thrill of living in our city is the knowledge that there are wild creatures inhabiting the most unexpected places, so know-ing what to look out for will greatly enhance your chance of seeing one of our elusive wild neighbours go about their daily lives.

a visiting Cape Grey Mongoose