“Walbie” is held up at the end of the day by (from left) Courtney Hundermark, John Cooper, Carol Jacobs, Johan Hölscher, Monique van Bers and Beate Hölscher, photograph by Nicola Marneweck
For the second year running, the Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project attended the South African Bird Fair in the Pretoria National Botanical Garden, this time on Saturday 05 September. The fair, hosted by BirdLife South Africa, is the premier annual birding event in the country, featuring in-person exhibitions, expert talks, workshops, a dedicated children’s programme and birding walks. This year the project was represented at the fair by John Cooper, News Correspondent and Beate Hölscher, Research and Reporting Officer. With the expected bad weather holding off until the next day the event was well attended with our stand receiving a steady stream of visitors throughout the day.
Monique van Bers, John Cooper and Carol Jacobs get framed at the bird fair, photograph by Mark Anderson
Undoubtedly, the presence of the MFM Project’s latest mascot, “Walbie”, with its outspread wings, was a great draw. Children and adults requested to be photographed with the life-sized model of a flying Wandering Albatross, with “I didn’t realize they were that big” heard more than once. Marion Island supports a quarter of the world’s population of this globally Vulnerable species, sadly at risk of local extinction due to the depredations of the introduced House Mice.
Jamie and Xandre Botes add their albatross sticker to the Marion hectare map, photograph by Carol Jacobs, published with parental permission
The main aim of the project’s attendance, as in the previous year, was to raise awareness of the plight of Marion Island’s seabirds and to introduce the MFM Project to the bird-loving attendees. In addition, books and art prints with a Marion Island theme were on sale. A highlight was a framed print of “The Albatrosses of the Prince Edward Islands”, signed and numbered by artist Leigh Wolfaardt, being purchased by an exhibitor from a nearby stall. We also had the sticker map of Marion Island on display, with 10 hectares being the final total sponsorship coming from nine individuals.
Monique van Bers introduces Marion Island’s seabirds to the audience, photograph by Nicola Marneweck
Monique van Bers, the project’s 2024/25 field assistant, gave an excellent talk entitled “Life on Marion Island: Understanding Mice to Save Seabirds” in the afternoon, giving the audience in the garden’s African Pride Conference Room an understanding of the field work she undertook on Marion Island’s mice. She is now using the information she collected towards her MSc degree at the University of Pretoria. She ended by describing what it is like to live on a sub-Antarctic island: hiking in bad weather, staying overnight in the field huts and living in isolation for 12 months among a small group of fellow team members. The audience was an engaged one, leading to an informative question and answer session.
Once again, a virtual reality headset loaded with short videos of Marion Island and its birdlife proved popular, photograph by Beate Hölscher
Special thanks are due to Carol Jacobs, who represents the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment on the MFM Project Management Committee, and Johan Hölscher, who both spent the whole day helping at our stand from early-morning setting up, arranging the loan of a gazebo at short notice, solving the unsteady easel problem and Johan bestowing the name of his bakkie on the Wandering Albatross model! Thanks also to Felix Holm of Flat Rock Studio for making “Walbie”, Wendy Jacobs for loan of the gazebo, Ria Olivier of the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa and author Nico de Bruyn for donating books, and to Leigh Wolfaardt for her continued support of the project via her art prints.
John Cooper, News Correspondent and Beate Hölscher, Research and Reporting Officer, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 23 September 2026
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Not only children … wing and arm spreading at the bird fair
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.
