Duiwenhoks Conservancy

10/04/2026

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10/03/2026

A reminder of the Duiwenhoks Conservancy Annual General Meeting. As usual, we plan to meet on Easter Saturday morning at 10 am in the Vrede Saal in Vermaaklikheid.

We really value participation. This annual meeting is a unique opportunity to show up as a community as we share our progress in the past 12 months. There is certainly much to celebrate. It’s also an opportunity to share what you believe we need to take care of. This is your chance to give input into shaping the future actions of the Duiwenhoks Conservancy committee.

This year, Dr Lara van Niekerk, Principal Researcher at CSIR, has accepted our invitation to share her knowledge of our special river, and update us on national and global estuarine initiatives.

Lara has impeccable credentials, having led research projects on more than 30 estuaries, including the Duiwenhoks. In addition, Lara recently finalised the National Health Assessment of SAs estuaries as part of the National Biodiversity Assessment 2018. Lara has been instrumental in the development of technologies, strategic and operational policies and protocols, and legislation required for the effective management of South Africa’s estuaries.

24/02/2026

Magnificent showing by our local bulbs after a sprinkle of recent rain

10/02/2026

Vermaaklikheid's Pedro Monteiro is a co-author of an article warning of the effects of the slowing Atlantic current. It says:

'For South Africa, regional warming will increase; heat, rainfall and storm extremes will intensify; and local to regional ecological and socio-economic tipping points could be triggered. The rich endemic biodiversity of the country’s western and southern Cape would be threatened.'
Read more here:
https://theconversation.com/african-climate-science-policy-has-a-serious-blind-spot-the-slowing-atlantic-circulation-268711?

An important ocean circulation system is slowing down faster than expected.

22/01/2026

Over the holidays, many of us saw an elephant seal on the banks of the Duiwenhoks river. We made a guess that it was a juvenile. Certainly it was a surprising visitor to many of us.

"Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) are an iconic species of the Southern Ocean. But with rapid environmental changes in their ocean home, the seals’ population range has been shifting.

Once spread across vast areas of the southern hemisphere, these apex predators are facing challenges from both climate shifts and human activities.

Our new research examines ancient and modern DNA, archaeological records and ecological data.

It reveals how these large marine mammals have adapted – and sometimes failed to adapt – to such pressures since the height of the last Ice Age thousands of years ago."

Read more here: https://theconversation.com/southern-elephant-seals-are-adaptable-but-they-struggle-when-faced-with-both-rapid-climate-change-and-human-impacts-251820?utm_medium=article_clipboard_share&utm_source=theconversation.com

22/01/2026

A new list of threatened mammals in South Africa reports that 42% of the mammals only found in South Africa are at risk of extinction. https://theconversation.com/bats-bushbabies-and-aardvark-edge-closer-to-extinction-in-southern-africa-273978?utm_medium=article_clipboard_share&utm_source=theconversation.com

10/01/2026

These quartz arrow tips with gifbol (Boophone disticha) poison represent the first direct evidence for hunting with poisoned arrows in southern Africa, and globally – at 60,000 years ago.

It demonstrates that these ancient bowhunters possessed a knowledge system enabling them to identify, extract and apply toxic plant exudates effectively. They must have also understood prey ecology and behaviour to know that the delayed effect of poison shot into an animal would weaken it after some time. That would make it easier to run down, a technique known as persistence hunting.

Such out-of-sight, long-distance action is a convincing indicator of complex cognition that requires response inhibition (being able to delay an action for a reason). Because poison is not a physical force, but functions chemically, the hunters must also have relied on advanced planning, abstraction and causal reasoning.

Thus, apart from providing the first direct evidence of hunting with poisoned arrows, the findings contribute to the understanding of human adaptation, techno-behavioural complexity and modern human behaviour in southern Africa.

The discovery that small stone arrow tips were treated with plant poison 60,000 years ago means that ancient African hunters were capable of complex thinking.

02/11/2025

A beautiful coastal gladiolus in bloom at the mouth this morning . G. gueinzii

31/10/2025

A controlled burn that went out of control.

Days later, the air is still very smoky. We need to be very careful. The fire danger is real.

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29/10/2025

Heritage Western Cape (HWC) is aware that the people of the Western Cape Province feel strongly about protecting resources that have a particular meaning to their culture, memory and lived experiences. Help us to identify these sites by nominating them to be considered as Provincial Heritage Sites (PHS).

HWC is working with the public to identify and nominate sites in the Western Cape having aesthetic, architectural, historical, scientific, social, spiritual, linguistic or technological heritage significance worthy of Provincial Heritage Site (PHS) status.

If you know any sites that you would like to nominate in our area, please let us know? We can work through the application together.

03/05/2025

A team of scientists who study vertebrate fossil tracks and traces on South Africa’s southern Cape coast have identified the world’s first fossil pangolin trackway, with the help of Indigenous Master Trackers from Namibia. Ichnologists Charles Helm, Clive Thompson and Jan De Vynck tell the story.

Here’s a snippet:

‘A fossil trackway east of Still Bay in South Africa’s Western Cape province was found in 2018 by a colleague and was brought to our attention. It was found on the surface of a loose block of aeolianite rock (formed from hardened sand) that had come to rest near the high-tide mark in a private nature reserve.’

For more https://theconversation.com/first-fossil-pangolin-tracks-discovered-in-south-africa-253383?

No fossilised pangolin tracks had been recorded anywhere in the world until a track was found in South Africa, dated to between 90,000 and 140,000 years ago.