Above Picture: The late Maria Luisa Amaro stands on the far right with fellow Wits Bird Club members Barbi Forsyth behind and Murrie Slotar to her side; the others are Chrissiesmeer residents

A portion of a bequest to the BirdLife South Africa-affiliated Witwatersrand Bird Club by a past member, Maria Luisa Amaro, has been used by the club to sponsor 10 hectares towards the eradication of Marion Island’s albatross-killing House Mice in 2024.  Lance Robinson, Honorary President of the Wits Bird Club, writes to MFM News:

“Luisa Amaro was born in Mozambique.  With the outbreak of that country’s civil war in 1977 she moved with her family to South Africa, where she worked as a cartographer in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province.  Luisa was a long-standing and very active member of the club, and besides being always willing to help, was passionately involved in community bird guide training that the bird club undertook in the Chrissiesmeer District of Mpumalanga Province, under the leadership of Barbi Forsyth and Murrie Slotar.  Luisa was also involved with our Coordinated Avifaunal Roadcount (CAR) activities in Wakkerstroom, Mpumalanga.  She passed away in October 2018.

Luisa was a quietly-spoken person who was always so generous and loved her birdwatching with the club.  We are pleased that her legacy will live on through the Mouse-Free Marion Project that we know she would have been supportive of.  She is greatly missed.”

The Wits Bird Club has previously supported the “Sponsor a Hectare” campaign following an on-line talk by Mouse-Free Marion Project Manager, Anton Wolfaardt.  With the contribution from the Luisa Amaro Bequest it has now sponsored 16 hectares.  The MFM Project is most grateful for the club’s continued support and hopes that more bird clubs in South Africa will consider contributing to a worthy cause that aims to restore the ecological balance on Marion Island by clearing it of mice. Sponsorships in memory of individuals will also be welcomed.

With thanks to Andy Featherstone and Lance Robinson, Witwatersrand Bird Club.

John Cooper, News Correspondent & Member, Scientific and Technical Advisory Group, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 30 November 2021