Alva van der Merwe holds her linocut of a Pintado Petrel at sea near Marion Island by Kathleen Ross, after a photograph by Dirk van Zijl taken aboard the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage, photograph by Eben Venter

Dr Eben Venter is an obstetrician and gynaecologist who practices in Pretoria, where he resides.  He is also a member of BirdLife South Africa and a keen birder.

Eben Venter and Alva van der Merwe aboard the MSC Musica during the during the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage

Eben’s bio says he “enjoys travelling to explore the world and different cultures and communities”.  Back in January he added the Southern Ocean to his travels, experiencing pelagic seabirds up close for the first time with his husband, Dr Stéhann Van Den Berg, on the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage.  On that voyage among the albatrosses he spotted a few ship-following Pintado Petrels Daption capense that were recently discovered to breed in very small numbers near Cape Hooker (South Africa’s most southerly point) on Marion Island.  Taken by the bird’s distinctive chequered pattern, it was a “no brainer” that he put in a bid when Kathleen Ross’s donated artwork of a Pintado Petrel was added to BirdLife South Africa’s online auction, with its selling price going to the Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project.  The framed hand-coloured linocut was exhibited on our stand at the South African Bird Fair in Pretoria last month where it attracted admiration, including from one visitor who confided she was going to put in a bid.  A bidding war then transpired before the auction closed with Eben eventually putting in the highest bid.  With a reserve price of R1000, the MFM Project is delighted the artwork realized three times that amount, bringing in R3000 for its funds.

MFM News got in touch with Eben to arrange delivery of his artwork from Cape Town to Pretoria, but he visited the Western Cape over a long weekend and could pick it up himself.  It was thus a pleasure to meet him at my Rondebosch home on a recent evening and while showing him my own collection of mounted albatross and petrel paintings, hand over Kathleen’s Pintado Petrel for him to view for the first time.  And the story does not stop there: Eben replied to a query saying that he had bought the artwork for a very close friend of his, Dr Alva van der Merwe, a Pretoria-based paediatrician.  He adds that Alva and her father Chris were also on the Flock voyage back in January.  Alva writes to MFM News that she absolutely loves her Pintado Petrel linocut and that “a life lived birding is a life elevated”.  Cannot argue with that!  Alva and Eben sponsored seven and three hectares, respectively while aboard the Flock voyage.  Eben’s successful bid now moves him to six hectares and into the 5+ ha Prion Category on the MFM Project’s Honour Roll, there joining his friend Alva.  Great to have such supporters of the MFM Project.

Suitably equipped and dressed in BirdLife South Africa’s Flock 2025 cold-weather kit: father Chris and daughter Alva van der Merwe during the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyages, photograph by Eben Venter

There is no doubt that art can inspire conservation of wild species and their habitats, including Marion Island and its beleaguered albatrosses and petrels that are being attacked and killed by the introduced House Mice.  The MFM Project is most grateful to Kathleen Ross, as well as Kitty Harvill, Namasri “Namo” Niumim, Holly Parsons, Leigh Wolfaardt and members of the Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) collective, for their continued support via their art.  Expect to see more of their (and others’) originals and artist’s prints at auctions, bird fairs and on this website in the coming days and months.  We are also grateful to art and bird lovers such as Eben Venter for finding homes for the donated works – and thereby helping the project raise much-needed funds.

John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 29 October 2025

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Northern Giant Petrel and chick on Marion Island by Natalya Pavlushina of Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature, after a photograph by Liezl Pretorius

The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean.  The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.  Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate.  For more information or to support the project please visit mousefreemarion.org.