Generous Donations

 July has been a bumper month for us not only with the school holidays, but also because we have had some amazing donations from corporates. Metro Plastics has been fantastic to us and have very generously donated sheets of coloured Perspex and offcuts for us to use in our education department. There are designs being drawn up to make the best use of this and the results will be seen around the park over the next few months. They also generously donated the clear Perspex we needed to replace the cracked windows in our LBJ (Little Brown Job) Aviary. If this wasn’t enough, they donated 2 further pieces of Perspex for the diet preparation tables for the show. The value combined of all this Perspex is around R15 000 which is money we don’t have lying around and grateful thanks to the staff of Metro Plastics for their generosity.

 

 

 We also received an amazing donation of books from Struik Nature - part of the Random Struik group. They are the publishers of more than 180 nature books and include some of the best known in the country like the Sasol Bird Book. They very generously donated more than 25 books to add to our library. These books will be used by our staff to better their own knowledge of birds, plants, reptiles and animals and also by our education department to formulate part of the new education plan scheduled for implementation in 2014. Aside from the value (R5 000) of the books, they are important to allow us to have the most recent information available to improve our own knowledge and standards. Follow them on Facebook or check out their website for the selection of books they publish.

If you or your company would like to make a donation to the park please contact Grant at education@urbp.co.za with details.

Another fantastic review of the park

http://www.durbanite.co.za/2013/the-umgeni-river-bird-park/

Father's Day Special

Awesome review of the park

Have a look at this fantastic review of the park and leave your comments. http://www.ecr.co.za/post/funsunzi-to-do-umgeni-bird-park/

Today is World Environment day and the theme is Think-Eat-Save. There are a host of resources available on www.unep.org/wed. The following information will help put things into perspective for you.

The impact of food waste is not just financial. Environmentally, food waste leads to wasteful use of chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides; more fuel used for transportation; and more rotting food, creating more methane – one of the most harmful greenhouse gases that contributes to climate change. Methane is 23 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. The vast amount of food going to landfills makes a significant contribution to global warming.

·         Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted.

·         Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes).

·         The amount of food lost or wasted every year is equivalent to more than half of the world's annual cereals crop (2.3 billion tonnes in 2009/2010).

·         Food loss and waste also amount to a major squandering of resources, including water, land, energy, labour and capital and needlessly produce greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to global warming and climate change.

·         In developing countries food waste and losses occur mainly at early stages of the food value chain and can be traced back to financial, managerial and technical constraints in harvesting techniques as well as storage –and cooling facilities. Thus, a strengthening of the supply chain through the support farmers and investments in infrastructure, transportation, as well as in an expansion of the food –and packaging industry could help to reduce the amount of food loss and waste.

·         In medium- and high-income countries food is wasted and lost mainly at later stages in the supply chain. Differing from the situation in developing countries, the behaviour of consumers plays a huge part in industrialized countries. Moreover, the study identified a lacking coordination between actors in the supply chain as a contributing factor. Farmer-buyer agreements can be helpful to increase the level of coordination. Additionally, raising awareness among industries, retailers and consumers as well as finding beneficial use for save food that is presently thrown away are useful measures to decrease the amount of losses and waste.

·         Discarded fish alone amounts to as much as 30 million tonnes, compared to total landings of 100–130 tonnes/year.

·         In the United States 30% of all food, worth US$48.3 billion (€32.5 billion), is thrown away each year. It is estimated that about half of the water used to produce this food also goes to waste, since agriculture is the largest human use of water. (Jones, 2004 cited in Lundqvist et al., 2008)

·         United Kingdom households waste an estimated 6.7 million tonnes of food every year, around one third of the 21.7 million tonnes purchased. This means that approximately 32% of all food purchased per year is not eaten. Most of this (5.9 million tonnes or 88%) is currently collected by local authorities. Most of the food waste (4.1 million tonnes or 61%) is avoidable and could have been eaten had it been better managed (WRAP, 2008; Knight and Davis, 2007).

·         In the USA, organic waste is the second highest component of landfills, which are the largest source of methane emissions.

Sources:

Global Food Losses and Food Waste - FAO, 2011

The environmental crisis: The environment’s role in averting future food crisis  – UNEP, 2009

Vacancy at the Umgeni River Bird Park

Bird Show Presenter & Bird Trainer

The Umgeni River Bird Park free-flight bird show has an opening for a Bird Show Presenter & Bird Trainer.

This position is responsible for husbandry and training of the birds in the free-flight show as well as presentation of the show itself.

Further responsibilities include assisting veterinary staff and record keeping. The applicant must be comfortable in a team environment, possess excellent communication skills and be self motivated. The applicant must be able to move heavy objects and be comfortable working in an outdoor environment, year round.

A Grade 12 certificate is a minimum requirement and candidates must have a valid driver’s licence.

Applicant must be young, passionate about conservation, confident and well spoken in English. Any previous experience in animal training or conservation, will be a big advantage to the applicant.

Applicants will be required to work some weekends and public holidays and school holiday’s.

For any further information on this position please contact the Bird Show Manager Mark Jones at mark@urbp.co.za

Please send your CVs to the same email address. Please understand that, due to the volume of applications, we cannot always reply to everyone if their application is not successful. We apologise for this in advance.

Easter Celebrations in full swing

The Bird Park is already buzzing with people as we kick off 4 days of fun and family activities. Come down and join us for lots to keep you busy and entertained this Easter. We have a jumping castle, face-painting, Easter egg hunt after every show, raffles, Nesquik promotion, colouring-in competition, free-flight bird show at 11am and 2pm every day and of course let's not forget more than 800 birds on display. The Cockatoo Cafe also have some great specials and give-aways planned so come on down and join us this long weekend. The park is open from 9am to 5pm every day (including public holidays) and the cost of entry is R36 for Adults and R17 for kids (4-12 years) and Pensioners. There is a cost of R40 for kids to participate in the Easter Activities which includes entry to the park.