Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
A sandstone hill with a sheer and high cliff-face at its southern end. It lies just south-east of the village of Otse in the hardveld of south-east Botswana. The lower slopes of this hill are well wooded. The whole hill was declared a Game Reserve in 1965 and the cliff and the wooded slope below was fenced off. There is no public access within this area except by permission from DWNP.
See Box for key species. The cliff-face is included as an IBA because of its important nesting population of
Gyps coprotheres, one of only two localities currently used by this species in Botswana
. G. coprotheres is known to have nested in south-east Botswana since at least the end of the 19th century. The Mannyelanong cliff, the two nearby sandstone hills of Otse and Baratani, and a sandstone escarpment, Manyana, about 30 km away, have been used in the past as breeding sites by
G. coprotheres, but Mannyelanong is now
the only occupied site in south-east Botswana
. Historical counts have been sporadic, although the colony is now regularly surveyed. During the 1960s, over 100 breeding pairs occurred at Mannyelanong with two smaller colonies on Otse and Baratani. Over 450 nestlings were ringed between 1973 and 1983. The south-eastern Botswanan breeding population underwent a decline of about 45% from 1963 to 1982 and then stabilized during the following decade at around 50 pairs breeding per season. One pair of
Ciconia nigra nests on the cliffs; the nest-site has been used in most seasons since 1941.
Aquila verreauxi also breeds on the Mannyelanong cliffs, together with
Falco biarmicus and
F. tinnunculus.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Nesting
G. coprotheres are susceptible to human disturbance but this has now largely been controlled through fencing off the bottom of the scree below the cliff face. A potential threat to the colony is a shortage of carrion for food although it is believed that food availability is not at present a limiting factor. The use of poisoned bait to control jackals and other animals is also a potential threat. Predation by
Aquila verreauxi and probably by
Papio ursinus accounts for some nest failures.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Mannyelanong Hill (Botswana). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/mannyelanong-hill-iba-botswana on 22/12/2024.
