SABAP2 (http://sabap2.adu.org.za) is the most important bird conservation research project in southern Africa. If you don't know the distributions of birds, and how they are changing, you cannot effectively do conservation intelligently. SABAP2 is monitoring the distributions of bird species across southern Africa. This slideshow demonstrates what the citizen scientists who contribute their observations to SABAP2 have achieved through the years since the project started in July 2007. It shows the coverage map every alternative year in July, and the final slide shows the impressive additional coverage in just one month between 22 July and 22 August 2013. It also shows how the Bateleur has decreased and six bulbul species have increased since SABAP1, two decades ago.

1. SABAP2
Southern African Bird Atlas Project 2
Quick visual progress:
July 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013,
and then August 2013
Les Underhill, Doug Harebottle and
Michael Brooks
Animal Demography Unit
Department of Zoology
University of Cape Town
http://sabap2.adu.org.za

2. SABAP2 is a partnership
between the Animal
Demography Unit at the
University of Cape Town,
BirdLife South Africa and the
South African National
Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)

7. Watch the
areas just
below the
arrows and
click!

8. Awesome progress
in Limpopo and
Northern Cape in
one month

9. The Bateleur is one of the icons of Africa. But
SABAP2 shows that this species is not doing well
in our region at all. If it were not for the two
atlas projects we would not know the seriousness
of the situation

10. The six bulbuls show the biggest increases of any family. The likely explanation
is the process of “thickening” of savanna habitats through bush encroachment,
abandonment of marginal farmland, and changes in land management

11. • SABAP2 is the fundamental bird conservation
project in the region – unless we have up to date
distribution maps, and understand how distributions are
changing, we cannot plan and prioritize on-the-ground
conservation strategies
– So it is important that this project continue
• If you or your company can help to sponsor SABAP2,
please contact Les Underhill les.underhill@uct.ac.za
• Or you can do an EFT:
– UCT donations account, Standard Bank, Rondebosch
– Branch 025009, Account 071522387 (SWIFT code is SBZAZAJJ)
– Beneficiary reference: Fund 231454 (this is the ADU’s donations
“fund” and tells the University where to transfer the money to)
– Please send an email to Sue Kuyper sue.kuyper@uct.ac.za and tell
her that you want the donation to be allocated to SABAP2
– UCT will send a Section 18A tax donation certificate

12. • SABAP2 is the fundamental bird conservation
project in the region – unless we have up to date
distribution maps, and understand how distributions are
changing, we cannot plan and prioritize on-the-ground
conservation strategies
– So it is important that this project continue
• If you or your company can help to sponsor SABAP2,
please contact Les Underhill les.underhill@uct.ac.za
• Or you can do an EFT:
– UCT donations account, Standard Bank, Rondebosch
– Branch 025009, Account 071522387 (SWIFT code is SBZAZAJJ)
– Beneficiary reference: Fund 231454 (this is the ADU’s donations
“fund” and tells the University where to transfer the money to)
– Please send an email to Sue Kuyper sue.kuyper@uct.ac.za and tell
her that you want the donation to be allocated to SABAP2
– UCT will send a Section 18A tax donation certificate
UCT does not charge any "levy" on
donations; the entire amount comes to
the ADU. There is a levy on formal
contracts, but the multiple services we
get for the amount we pay are pretty
good – the ADU projects could not be
run cheaper off campus – one of the
most important benefits is the fantastic
high quality access we get onto the
global internet highways!