The FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology is a South African biological research and conservation institute based at the University of Cape Town. The mission statement of the institute is “to promote and undertake scientific studies involving birds, and contribute to the practice affecting the maintenance of biological diversity and the sustained use of biological resources”.
History
The FitzPatrick Institute was founded in 1959 through the efforts and financial support of Cecily Niven, the daughter of Sir Percy FitzPatrick, and was originally incorporated as a non-profit company. It is now incorporated within the University of Cape Town as an autonomous subunit within the department of Zoology. It houses the Niven Library and has become the largest centre for ornithological research in the Southern Hemisphere. The name was changed in 2018 from the "Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of Ornithology".
Research
As of the end of 2006, research programs and initiatives included: Systematics and biogeography Life history strategies Cooperative breeding and sociality in birds Ecology of migration Ecological and evolutionary physiology Rarity and conservation biology of southern African birds Island conservation Seabird research Raptor research Gamebird research Spatial parasitology and epidemiology Pattern process linkages in landscape ecology Environmental and resource economics, water resources and estuarine ecology, and conservation Climate change vulnerability and adaptation
References
Percy FitzPatrick Institute Annual Report, January-December 2006 downloaded 2 November 2007