October 11, 2007
By Millicent Kgowedi
THE public has been invited to suggest names for the young black eagle now airborne at the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden in Roodepoort.
DNA testing of the five-month-old young eagle confirmed that it is female; now it is in need of a name. "We decided to get the public involved in name suggestions," said Libby Woodcock, the black eagle project co-ordinator at the garden. "Last year, we named a young eagle Freedom and we thought that if this one was a male, we would call him Nkosi. But since the chick turned out to be a girl, we are asking the public to get involved."
She said that the young eagle could fly but still depended on its parents, as it could not fend for itself yet. Eagles were very territorial but this young one was not yet at a stage where it could find its own prey and it still relied on her parents for food.
Eagles prey on dassies, hares and other small animals. Large eagles, such as the martial eagle and the bateleur eagle, eat reptiles, guinea fowl, ducks, small antelope and other small mammals.
The eagles nest on the ridge at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Garden
Black eagles generally lay two creamy white eggs four days apart in May, followed by a 45-day incubation period. The fluffy white chicks hatch four days apart. They grow into golden brown juvenile eagles and leave the parental nest about 97 days after hatching, according to Woodcock.
The black eagle pair at the garden, Emoyeni and her mate Dubbed, are one of the main attractions. The birds have two nests near the top of the 70m high Witpoortjie Waterfall, both of which they use to mate and lay their eggs.
"The pair is a part of the garden's history, as the two have been breeding pairs of black eagles since the 1940s. We only have a few such birds in an urban area, where eagles feed on hares and other small animals."
Walter Sisulu Botanical Garden, in Little Falls, in Roodepoort, is 30 kilometres west of Joburg's central business district. It is one of eight botanical gardens in the country run by the South African National Biodiversity Institute.
The 300 hectares of landscaped and natural veld areas are planted with indigenous trees and 600 species of indigenous flowering plants and shrubs. There is a variety of species of arachnids, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. More than 230 species of birds have also been spotted in the garden.
Initially known as the Transvaal National Botanic Gardens, it was opened to the public on a daily basis in 1987 as the Witwatersrand National Botanical Garden. In March 2004, it was renamed the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden, in honour of Walter Sisulu, one of the leaders of the struggle for a democratic South Africa.
The Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden is in Malcolm Road, Poortview, Roodepoort, and is open to the public daily from 8am to 6pm. Those who want to see the young eagle should on Saturdays or Sundays, when an official will be on duty.
Entrance to the garden is R18 for adults and R7 for learners. Children under six are free.
Suggestions for the young eagle's name must be emailed to sisulugarden@sanbi.org. For more information, phone the garden on 011 958 1750.
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