Tag Archives: Southern ground-hornbills
Hornbills at HESC – In love or not?
Visiting the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre (HESC) will leave you silent and in awe of the amazing animals of this country. From a dashing cheetah, glaring with intent, to a rhino silently resting under a tree, have all found a home at HESC. Even Gumpie, the resident Ground Hornbill, is at home here. Gumpie and his mate, named Skewie – named after her skew beak – were given to HESC…
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Horns at HESC
The Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre (HESC) is, to many, a paragon of what conservation encompasses. It focuses on the conservation of rare, vulnerable and endangered animal species and Cheetah Conservation is one of its core disciplines. It is however not their only discipline. Earlier this month a new initiative was initiated, namely: Trumpets and Horns – which draws focus, once again, to the impact human greed has on animals. To…
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Update on southern ground hornbills, Gumpie and Skewy
In our last update about our ground hornbill couple, Gumpie and Skewy, the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project researchers were at the centre to conduct research on the effects of hormones on throat coloration, and in particularly the cause of blue throat coloration in males. Click here to read about it. While busy with this they discovered that Skewy had laid an egg, and on closer inspection found that it was…
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The Mabula Ground Hornbill Project researchers visit HESC; and our southern ground hornbill, Skewy, lays her first egg
Researchers from the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project recently visited us to conduct research on the effects of hormones on throat coloration, and in particularly the cause of blue throat coloration in males. The study required fecal samples (on three consecutive days) from as many southern ground hornbills as possible. This is an entirely non-invasive procedure and simply involves observing the birds from outside the enclosure until they defecate. Researchers would…
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No bird brains over here!
Picture taken by Lusinda Oosthuizen When our two Southern ground-hornbills were still juveniles, a pair of wild hornbills adopted them and took it upon themselves to ensure that the youngsters were properly fed. They would arrive each day with tasty morsels, which they would then feed the young birds through the fence. Now that our birds are adults the wild hornbills still visit regularly, but they’ve since cottoned…
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