West Rand celebs are flying high
To say that the Verreaux’s eagles of the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden are famous, would be an understatement.
With nearly 400 000 followers on Facebook from nearly every imaginable country in the world, it is safe to say that they are the West Rand’s most famous celebrities. The first reported sighting of the black eagles in the area dates back to 1940, although there have been numerous unconfirmed sightings many years before that.
The Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden, as it is known today, was only established in 1982, and monitoring of the resident eagles started in 1988 by Dr Gerhard Verdoorn of the Raptor Conservation Group. This group became the Roodekrans Black Eagle Monitoring Project in 1998, when it was officially established as a Section 21 nonprofit organisation.
In 2003, Africam chose the spot atop the Witpoortjie Falls in Roodekrans as the site to install a camera focused on the nest of the eagles. This camera livestreams to thousands of homes and classrooms across the world 24 hours per day.
Today, monitoring of the eagles, also known as black eagles, continues with dedicated monitors taking photographs and taking note of the daily lives of the pair, faithfully recording all significant events.
According to project committee member Dougie Crewe, the organisation currently consists of about 30 members.
They gather at the botanical garden on Tuesdays and on weekends to take photographs, record significant events and bond over their shared interest in these magnificent raptors.
“We regularly host schools and church groups that bring pupils and younger congregation members to gain knowledge about the eagles,” Crewe said.
The current pair, Makatsa and Mahlori, are hunting and preparing their nest for this year’s clutch, which is expected to arrive anytime from April.
“We are very excited to see what 2024 will bring for the eagles,” he said.
The Roodekrans Black Eagle Project is open to anyone who would like to become a member. –