Hot Birds Research Project
Principal Investigators
Prof. Andrew McKechnie
Contact
Prof. Andrew E. McKechnie
Department of Zoology and Entomology
University of Pretoria
Pretoria, 0002
South Africa
South African Research Chair in Conservation Physiology
South African National Biodiversity Institute
Email: andrew.mckechnie@up.ac.za
Tel: +27 12 420 3232
Fax: + 27 12 362 5242
Andrew McKechnie is a Professor in the Department of Zoology and Entomology at the University of Pretoria, and the South African Research Chair of Conservation Physiology at the South African National Biodiversity Institute. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Natal in 2002, where his postgraduate research focused on the ecology and evolution of avian heterothermy. Thereafter, he spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of New Mexico before returning to South Africa in 2004 to take up a position at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he remained until moving to the University of Pretoria in early 2008. He was acting Deputy Dean: Research and Postgraduate Studies in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences during the period August 2014 to March 2015. He has been a core team member of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town since the Centre was established in 2004. He is currently Associate Editor for two journals, namely Climate Change Responses and Emu – Austral Ornithology, and is a member of the editorial board of Journal of Comparative Physiology B.
Research interests
My research interests fall into three major areas:
Physiological approaches to predicting climate change impacts on arid-zone birds
Empirical data on the temperature dependence of a suite of physiological and behavioural variables are needed to parameterise models linking current and future climates to survival and reproduction over time scales ranging from hours to seasons. One key aspect of this work involves quantifying variation among and within species in heat tolerance limits and evaporative cooling capacities; this information is vital for understanding whether birds will be able to cope with more frequent and intense heat waves.
Avian physiological diversity: integrating sources of phenotypic variation
This component of my research program seeks to understand how different sources of phenotypic variation in physiological traits interact with each other and contribute to physiological diversity. My work in this area has focused primarily on metabolic rates, and to a lesser extent evaporative water loss rates. My approach involves a combination of experimental work under laboratory conditions, investigation of physiological variation in free-ranging populations, and synthetic analyses of published data.
Ecology and evolution of heterothermy
My work on heterothermic responses in birds relies on three complementary approaches: quantifying heterothermy under natural conditions in order to better understand the phylogenetic distribution and ecological determinants of heterothermic responses, experimental manipulations of energy balance to elucidate proximate determinants of heterothermic responses, and bioenergetic modeling and literature reviews.
Key Publications
Freeman, M.T., Coulson, B., Short, J.C., Ngcamphalala, C.A., Makola, M.O. and McKechnie, A.E. (in press) Evolution of avian heat tolerance: the role of atmospheric humidity. Ecology.
van den Heever, L, Naidoo, V., Coetzer, T., Eyssen, L., Hewlett, J., Smit-Robinson, H., Whitecross, M.A., McKechnie, A.E. 2024. Sub-lethal impacts of lead poisoning on blood biochemistry, immune function and delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (δ-ALAD) activity in free-living Cape (Gyps coprotheres) and White-backed (G. africanus) Vulture chicks Environmental Research 245: 117926.
Hunt, K., Marais, L., Cunningham, S.J., Ridley, A.R., Moagi, L., Rose, S., McKechnie, A.E., Bourne, A.R. 2024. Camelthorn trees Vachellia erioloba provide crucial resources for breeding Southern Pied Babblers Turdoides bicolor in the Kalahari Desert. Ibis 166(1): 82-94.
Payne, S.L., Cunningham, S.J., Howes, C.G. and McKechnie, A.E. 2023. A trait-based assessment of southern African arid-zone birds’ vulnerability to climate change. Biological Conservation 287: 110338.
Pessato, A., Udino, E., McKechnie, A.E., Bennett, A., and Mariette, M.M. 2023. Thermal acclimatisation to heatwave conditions is rapid but sex-specific in wild zebra finches. Scientific Reports 13: 18297.
Conradie, S.R., Kearney, M.R., Wolf, B.O., Cunningham, S.J., Freeman, M.T., Kemp, R. and McKechnie, A.E. 2023. An evaluation of a biophysical model for predicting avian thermoregulation in the heat. Journal of Experimental Biology 226: jeb245066.
Swanson, D.L., Stager, M., Vézina, F., Liu, J.-S., McKechnie, A.E. and Goljani Amirkhiz, R. 2023. Evidence for a maintenance cost for birds maintaining highly flexible basal, but not summit, metabolic rates. Scientific Reports 13: 8968.
McKechnie, A.E., Freeman, M.T. and Brigham, R.M. 2023. Avian heterothermy: a review of patterns and processes. Integrative and Comparative Biology icad029.
Ma, L., Conradie, S.R., Crawford, C.L., Gardner, A.S., Kearney, M.R., Maclean, I.M.D., McKechnie, A.E., Mi, C.-R., Senior, R.A., Wilcove, D.S. 2023. Global patterns of climate change impacts on desert bird communities. Nature Communications 14(1): 211.
Ngcamphalala, C.A., Ganswindt, A., Nicolson, S.W. and McKechnie, A.E. 2023. Physiological validation of the use of faecal glucocorticoid metabolites as a measure of stress in a passerine and a columbid from southern Africa. Emu – Austral Ornithology 123(1): 79-84.
van den Heever, L., Naidoo, V., Elburg, M., Iaccheri, L., Ueckermann, H., Bybee, G., Smit-Robinson, H. and McKechnie, A.E. 2023. Identifying the origin of lead poisoning in white-backed vulture chicks at Dronfield Nature Reserve: a stable lead isotope approach. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 30(6): 15059-15069.
Short, J.C., Freeman, M.T. and McKechnie, A.E. 2022. Respirometry protocols for avian thermoregulation at high air temperatures: stepped and steady-state profiles yield similar results. Journal of Experimental Biology 225: jeb244166.
Freeman, M.T., Czenze, Z.J, Schoeman, K. and McKechnie A.E. 2022. Adaptive variation in the upper limits of avian body temperature. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. 119(26): e2116645119.
Pattinson, N.B., van de Ven, T.M.F.N., Finnie, M.J., Nupen, L., McKechnie, A.E., and Cunningham, S.J. 2022. Collapse of breeding success in desert-dwelling hornbills evident within a single decade. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 10: 842264.
Pessato, A., McKechnie, A.E. and Mariette, M. 2022. A prenatal acoustic signal of heat affects thermoregulation capacities at adulthood in an arid-adapted bird. Scientific Reports 12: 5842.
Conradie, S.R., Woodborne, S.M., Wolf., B.O., Pessato, A., Mariette, M.M. and McKechnie, A.E. 2022. Global heating poses a serious threat to Australia’s birds: reply to Pacheco-Fuentes et al. Conservation Physiology 10: 10.1093/conphys/coac011.
Czenze, Z.J., Smit, B., van Jaarsveld, B., Freeman, M.T., McKechnie, A.E. 2022. Caves, crevices and cooling capacity: roost microclimate predicts heat tolerance in bats. Functional Ecology 36(1): 38-50.
Bourne, A.R., Cunningham, S.J., Nupen, L.J., McKechnie, A.E. and Ridley, A.R. 2022. No sex-specific differences in the influence of high air temperatures during early development on nestling mass and fledgling survival in the Southern Pied Babbler (Turdoides bicolor). Ibis 164(1): 304-312.
Smit, B., Woodborne, S.M., Wolf, B.O. and McKechnie, A.E. (2019). Differences in the use of surface water resources by desert birds is revealed using isotopic tracers. The Auk: Ornithological Advances 136 doi.org/10.1093/auk/uky005
Whitfield, M.C., Smit, B., McKechnie, A.E. and Wolf, B.O. (2015). Avian thermoregulation in the heat: scaling of heat tolerance and evaporative cooling capacity in three southern African arid-zone passerines. Journal of Experimental Biology 218: 1705-1714.
McKechnie, A.E., Hockey, P.A.R. and Wolf, B.O. (2012). Feeling the heat: Australian landbirds and climate change. Emu 112: i-vii.
McKechnie, A.E. and Wolf, B.O. (2010). Climate change increases the likelihood of catastrophic avian mortality events during extreme heat waves. Biology Letters 6: 253-256.
Dr. Susan Cunningham
Contact
Dr Susan J. Cunningham
FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology
DST-NRF Centre of Excellence
University of Cape Town
Rondebosch, 7701
South Africa
Email: susan.cunningham@uct.ac.za
Tel: + 27 21 650 33 06
Fax: + 27 21 650 32 95
Susie is an associate professor and the Director of the FitzPatrick Institute at the University of Cape Town. She has been involved in the Hot Birds programme since 2010, initially as a post-doc with Prof. Phil Hockey and currently as PI of the behaviour side of the programme. She works closely with Andrew McKechnie on projects integrating behavioural and physiological approaches to understand the thermal biology of birds.
Susie is a New Zealander and completed her undergraduate degrees in Ecology & Biodiversity and Classical Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, and her Ph.D. on tactile sensory systems in birds at Massey University. She moved to South Africa in 2010 and spent her first field season in the Kalahari over the summer of 2010/11.
The focus of Susie’s and her students’ field work is on the relationship between thermal biology and behavioural ecology, in particular the fitness consequences of behavioural thermoregulation.
Research interests
Understanding the vulnerability of arid zone birds to climate change
A major focus of Susie’s current research is the use of mechanistic approaches to understand the potential vulnerability of different bird species to climate change. Together with her collaborators and students, she studies the behavioural and ecophysiological responses of birds to high temperatures, with a focus on fitness consequences associated with thermoregulatory trade-offs. Susie works closely with Andrew McKechnie and Ben Smit (NMMU) on these questions, using predominantly Kalahari species, but also fynbos birds, as model taxa.
Behavioural ecology in a changing world
Susie is interested in the behavioural flexibility of animals in the face of ecological change: how environmental factors, particularly temperature and aridity, drive behavioural decisions. She is especially interested in the consequences of these decisions for individual fitness, sociality, and the evolution of life history strategies.
Sensory ecology
When not in the Kalahari, Susie continues work on the non-visual senses used by animals –especially birds - in foraging and social interactions, the ecological pressures that favour non-visual senses, and the connections between sensory systems and behaviour.
Key Publications
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Bourne, A.R., Ridley, A.R., Spottiswoode, C.N. & Cunningham, S.J. 2021. Direct and indirect effects of high temperatures on fledging in a cooperatively breeding bird. Behavioral Ecology. arab087, https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab087
Bourne, A.R., Cunningham, S.J., Nupen, L.J., McKechnie, A.E., & Ridley, A.R. 2021. No sex-specific differences in the influence of high air temperatures during early development on nestling mass and fledgling survival in the Southern Pied Babbler (Turdoides bicolor). Ibis. https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12990
Oswald, K.N., Smit, B., Lee, A.T.K, Peng, C.L., Brock, C., & Cunningham, S.J. 2021. Higher temperatures are associated with reduced nestling body condition in a range-restricted mountain bird. Journal of Avian Biology. 52. https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.02756
Bourne, A.R., Ridley, A.R., McKechnie, A.E., Spottiswoode, C.N. & Cunningham, S.J. 2021. Dehydration risk is associated with reduced nest attendance and hatching success in a cooperatively breeding bird, the southern pied babbler Turdoides bicolor. Conservation Physiology 9. coab043.
Moagi, L.L., Bourne, A.R., Cunningham, S.J., Jansen, R., Ngcamphalala, C.A., Ganswindt, A., Ridley, A.R., & McKechnie, A.E. 2021. Hot days are associated with short-term adrenocortical responses in a southern African arid-zone passerine bird. Journal of Experimental Biology. 224. jeb242535
Ridley, A. R., Wiley, E. M., Bourne, A.R., Cunningham, S.J., Nelson-Flower, M.J. 2021. Understanding the potential impact of climate change on the behavior and demography of social species: the pied babbler (Turdoides bicolor) as a case study. Advances in the Study of Behavior. 53: 225-266. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.asb.2021.03.005
McKechnie, A.E., Rushworth, I. A., Myburgh, F., & Cunningham, S.J. 2021. Mortality among birds and bats during an extreme heat event in eastern South Africa. Austral Ecology. 46: 687 – 691 .https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.13025
Cunningham, S.J., Gardner, J., & Martin, R. O. 2021. Opportunity costs and the response of birds and mammals to climate warming. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 19: 300-307. http://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2324
van Jaarsveld, B., Bennett, N., Czenze, Z., Kemp, R., Van de Ven, T.M.F.N., Cunningham, S.J., & McKechnie, A.E. 2021. How hornbills handle heat: sex-specific thermoregulation in the southern yellow-billed hornbill. Journal of Experimental Biology. 224: jeb232777 doi: 10.1242/jeb.232777
Bourne, A.R., Cunningham, S.J., Spottiswoode, C.N., Ridley, A.R. 2020. Hot droughts compromise interannual survival across all group sizes in a cooperatively breeding bird. Ecology Letters. 23: 1776 – 1788. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13604.
Rat, M., Mathe-Hubert, H., McKechnie, A.E., Sueur, C., & Cunningham, S.J. 2020. Extreme and variable environmental temperatures are linked to reduction of social network cohesiveness in a highly social passerine. Oikos. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.07463
Bourne, A.R., Cunningham, S.J., Spottiswoode, C.N., Ridley, A.R. 2020. High temperatures drive offspring mortality in a cooperatively breeding bird. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 287: 20201140 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1140
Bourne, A.R., Cunningham, S.J., Spottiswoode, C.N., Ridley, A.R. 2020. Compensatory breeding in years following drought in a desert-dwelling cooperative breeder. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 8:190.
Bourne, A.R., McKechnie, A.E., Cunningham, S.J., Ridley, A.R., Woodborne, S.M. and Karasov, W.H. (2019). Non-invasive measurement of metabolic rates in wild, free-living birds using doubly labelled water. Functional Ecology 33: 162-174.
Conradie, S.R., Woodborne, S.M., Cunningham, S.J. and McKechnie, A.E. (2019). Chronic, sublethal effects of high temperatures will cause severe declines in southern African arid-zone birds during the 21st century. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116: 14065-14070
van de Ven, T.M., McKechnie, A.E. and Cunningham, S.J. (2019). The costs of keeping cool: behavioural trade-offs between foraging and thermoregulation are associated with significant mass losses in an arid-zone bird. Oecologia doi: 10.1007/s00442-019-04486-x
Abdu, S., McKechnie, A.E., Lee, A.T.K. and Cunningham, S.J. (2018). Can providing shade at water points help Kalahari birds beat the heat? Journal of Arid Environments 152: 21-27.
Abdu, S., Lee, A.T.K. and Cunningham, S.J. (2018). The presence of artificial water points structures an arid-zone avian community over small spatial scales. Ostrich. DOI: 10.2989/00306525.2018.1509904
Cunningham, S.J. (2018). Birds of the arid zones: living life on the edge. Ostrich 89: 297-298.