THE SURVIVAL RATES OF SOME SOUTHERN AFRICAN PASSERINES

Little information is available on survival rates of southern hemisphe re passerines, but two recent studies indicate that Australian passeri nes tend to live longer than their northern hemisphere relatives. The aim of this paper is to provide data on survival of some South African passerines and compare them with Australian data. The survival rates of eleven species (eight genera) of South African passerines were calc ulated using recapture data provided by the South African Bird Ringing Unit for birds whose retraps occurred more than 12 months after the o riginal ringing. Survival did not depend on either the length of the s tudy or body mass. Mean survival rate was similar to that of 32 specie s of Australian passerines, which is at least 1,2 greater than that of British passerines.