Page 334 - Atlas Sea Birds Ver1

3.4 Numbers, trends, status, and conservation of Great White
Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) breeding coastally in
southern Africa

Authors: RJM Crawford, BM Dyer, C Fox, M Morais, DB Tom, L Upfold, MJL Visagie, and AB Makhado

Abstract:
In southern Africa, Great White Pelicans (Pelecanus onocrotalus) have bred at 19 localities, five of which are in the interior and 14 around
the coast. Breeding was sporadic at four interior sites but more consistent at Hardap Dam, in Namibia. At the coast, breeding was more
or less regular at Lake St Lucia, southwest South Africa, and central Namibia, and was observed at Ilha dos Tigres, although there
were large fluctuations in numbers breeding and in breeding success. For example, breeding was not attempted or failed in 23 (41%) of
56 breeding seasons at Lake St Lucia. Six of the failures were due to flooding of nest sites, whereas during droughts low water levels
allowed terrestrial predators to access the sites. In southwest South Africa, numbers at Dassen Island increased between the early 1970s
and the early 2000s, initially as a result of moving to less disturbed breeding habitat and later on account of an increased availability of
food. They then decreased following a reduced supply of agricultural offal. In 2000, the number of Great White Pelicans nesting in South
Africa was gauged to be c. 3,500 pairs. In 2007, the number breeding coastally around Angola, Namibia and South Africa was thought
to be 3,702 pairs. The sum of the maximum counts at coastal localities made during 2018–2020 was 1,415 pairs, whereas the sum of
the most recent counts at coastal localities was 1,419 pairs. These values suggest that the coastal population of Great White Pelicans
decreased by c. 60% between 2007 and 2020. In this period, numbers breeding at Bird Rock Platform in Namibia, Dassen Island, and
Lake St Lucia all decreased, as did numbers of birds observed at Lake St Lucia. The species was considered Vulnerable in both Namibia
and South Africa in 2015 and this classification should be retained. In the region, Lake St Lucia, Dassen Island, Hardap Dam, and perhaps
also Bird Rock Platform and Ilha dos Tigres, should be regarded as Important Bird and Biodiversity areas for the species. The main threats
to Great White Pelicans in southern Africa are loss of suitable breeding habitat and fluctuations in food availability.

Introduction:
The Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) occurs in east Europe, west and south Asia, the Middle East and Africa south of the
Sahara (del Hoyo et al. 1992). In 2005, its global population was estimated to number about 250,000 birds, with up to 75,000 pairs in Africa
(Del Hoyo et al. 1992, Wetlands International 2002). In 2022, its overall population was thought to be 265,000–295,000 individuals and the
species’ Red List category was Least Concern, LC (BirdLife International 2022).
In southern Africa, Great White Pelicans usually breed annually at three coastal localities, whereas over much of the interior they tend
to be nomadic. Major inland breeding sites can be abandoned for years in succession during drought periods, but occupied within weeks
of flooding (Williams and Borello 1997). The pelicans may move substantial distances to forage while breeding, e.g. 100 km from Lake St
Lucia to the Pongola River floodplain (Williams and Borello 1997), and 80 km from Dassen Island to Rondevlei (Guillet and Crowe 1983).
In their non-breeding season, they disperse further. For example, some forage in the Orange River Estuary, between the breeding sites of
Bird Rock Platform, Hardap Dam, and Dassen Island (Simmons 2015), and a juvenile bird visited Bird Island (Algoa Bay), midway between
the colonies at Dassen Island and Lake St Lucia (Whittington 2021).
In southern Africa, Great White Pelicans have bred at 19 localities, five inland and 14 around the coast (Figure 1). Three of the inland
sites are in Namibia and two are in Botswana. At Hardap Dam in Namibia, up to 250 pairs nested regularly on small islands when water
levels were appropriate (Simmons 2015) and c. 370 pairs bred there in 2009 (Kolberg 2009). At the four other inland localities, breeding
occurred irregularly when flood conditions were suitable (Williams and Borello 1997). In 1971, about 1,500 pairs bred at Lake Oponono
and, after their eggs were harvested by fishermen, then joined another 1,500 pairs at Etosha Pan, both sites being in Namibia (Berry et
al. 1973). In Botswana, more than 1,000 pairs bred at Lake Ngami in 1970/71, whereas at Sua Pan c. 130 pairs bred in 1974, there were
several thousand breeding birds in 1979, 6,000 birds in 1989 and 2,000 birds in 1996 (Williams and Borello 1997). The sporadic breeding
by birds in the interior of southern Africa may result from their moving into the region from further north in Africa when conditions are
favourable (Crawford 2005).
This chapter updates estimates of numbers of Great White Pelicans breeding coastally in southern Africa. It makes a preliminary
assessment of the Red List status of, identifies Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) for, and summarises threats to the coastal
component of the southern African population.

Coastal numbers and trends breeding was assumed; ‘?’ that breeding may have taken
place.
Records of Great White Pelicans breeding coastally in Around the coast Great White Pelicans bred at four
different years in Angola, Namibia, and South Africa from groups of localities: Ilha dos Tigres in southern Angola; Bird
1604–2021 are shown in Table 1. Information was collated Rock Platform and Sandwich Harbour in central Namibia;
from Rand (1963), Berry et al. (1973), Berry (1975), Berry Jutten, Vondeling, Dassen, Robben, Seal (False Bay), and
and Berry (1975), Berruti (1980), Cooper (1980), Crawford Dyer islands and Quoin Rock off southwest South Africa;
et al. (1981, 1995), Brooke (1983, 1984), Williams and and Lane and Bird islands, Selley’s Lake, and North False
Borello (1997), Kemper et al. (2007), Bowker and Downs Bay in Lake St Lucia in northeast South Africa.
(2008a), Bowker (2015), Simmons (2015), and relevant Great White Pelicans bred at Ilha dos Tigres in
breeding locality chapters in this volume. When multiple 2001 (Simmons et al. 2006) and 2020. This locality is
counts were obtained at a locality in a given year, the large, difficult to access, and was seldom surveyed for
maximum was used. When a range was given, the mid- ornithological purposes, so breeding may have occurred
point was used. ‘√’ signifies that breeding occurred at more frequently.
a locality but the numbers were not ascertained; ‘#’ that Great White Pelicans first bred at Bird Rock Platform in

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