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UITZICHT DAM: INDIGENOUS WATER BIRDS REMOVED
Coots culled at City dam ESMÉ ERASMUS @erasmusesme
R
esidents around the Lisbon dam in Uitzicht in Durbanville were infuriated last Wednesday morning when they discovered that about 40 water fowl, including all the indigenous coots and moorhens, at the dam were being removed. The contractor, NCC Environmental Services, which was appointed by the City of Cape Town’s invasive species unit, arrived at the dam in Lisbon Street at dawn – just after 06:00 – to remove alien waterfowl species at the dam. However, they removed all indigenous species, such as yellowbilled ducks, African red-nobbed coots (Fulica cristata) and two moorhens and their two two-month-old chickens as well, according to a resident, Frede de Kock. This removal of “alien species” came out of the blue, shortly after a resident was threatened by illegal fishermen at the dam that “they will have their friends at CapeNature come” and “will have all the waterfowl at the dam removed if they keep on reporting the illegal fishing to law enforcement”. Tension between illegal fishermen at the dam and residents built up after the City’s law enforcement officials clamped down on the illegal fishermen at dams in Uitzicht. This came after an uproar when an Egyptian goose at the dam in Manchester Street had to be put down after fishing line amputated the one leg and partially amputated the other leg. On a cellphone video posted on so-
cial media, it can be seen how a coot, clearly drugged, struggles to stand upright and collapses, while on another video a worker can be seen on a blue kayak paddling after a fluttering black coloured waterfowl, presumably a coot or moorhen. The paralysed waterfowl, which were floating on the water, were collected and put into boxes and taken away until about midday. According to De Kock, he saw that they put a coot in a box. When he questioned it he was told by the contractor that they were instructed to remove all birds at the dam. “I was convinced that the boxes must have contained yellowbilled ducks, because there were normally about 25 permanent yellowbills and less than 20 mallards. Since I started to chase the Egyptian geese away and with the co-operation of the residents not feeding them, the yellowbills moved in and consequently reduced the number of mallards. “While we do understand that the mallards are invasive birds, they have become like pets to most of the residents,” he said. “Removing the birds is something we just need to swallow, but the processes need to be tackled in a manner that does not effect the rest of the wildlife,” he said. One of the contract workers later the same day returned to release one coot, De Kock said. When questioned as to where the other coots were, he said they are “in the fridge”, meaning dead. To page 4
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Strooipret by Plaasfees
Luc Phillips (1) van Durbanville het dit geniet om sy boetie, Zac (3), vol strooi te gooi by die gewilde Durbanville-plaasfees, wat die afgelope Saterdag op die Meerendal-wynlandgoed aangebied is. Sien nog foto’s op bladsy 12. FOTO: ESMÉ ERASMUS
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