Micromammals in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, past and present

Micromammals in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, past and present D. Margaret Avery1 & Graham Avery1,2 1 Iziko South African Museum, P.O. Box 61, Cape Town, 8000 South Africa E-mail: / 2 Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700 South Africa (with 78 figures) Received 19 January 2011. Accepted 30 June 2011 This paper provides a basis for conservation work by detailing the micromammalian taxa occurring in the Northern Cape Province. It presents new evidence from 30 barn owl pellet collections, augmented by previously published material from trapping or observation (here called ‘conventional’ reports) and owl roosts, divided into pre-1930, 1930–1979 and 1980 and newer as an indication of continuity of occurrence. A historical perspective is added by the inclusion of material from two archaeological sites dating to the Pleistocene (before about 10 000 years ago) and 11 from the Holocene (after about 10 000 years ago). Northern Cape Province synonymies are provided as an aid to equating older records with modern taxonomy. In all, 77 currently recognized micromammalian species have been recorded from the province. These comprise five Afrosoricida (golden moles), six Macroscelidea (elephant shrews), eight Soricomorpha (forest shrews), 16 Chiroptera (bats), and 42 Rodentia (rodents). Key words: micromammals, distribution, Northern Cape Province, modern, Holocene, Pleistocene. Abstract · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 9 Introduction · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 9 Material and methods· · · · · · · 11 Taxonomic survey · · · · · · · · · · 11 CONTENTS Afrosoricida · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 11 Macroscelidea · · · · · · · · · · · · · 12 Soricomorpha · · · · · · · · · · · · · 14 Chiroptera · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 16 INTRODUCTION The Northern Cape Province in its present configuration (Fig. 1) has been in place since 1994 when the current provinces were delineated. Before that, the region formed part of the Cape Province, which, additionally, comprised part of what is now North West Province in its northeast corner, the Western Cape Province and Eastern Cape Province. This, in itself, need not have caused problems in determining whether material was actually collected in the modern Northern Cape Province. When, however, these changes are compounded by lack of precision or name changes in collecting localities, there may well be some doubt. Some of the problems include the fact that the informal term ‘northern Cape’ was previously used to indicate that part of the previous Cape Province now largely, but not entirely, coincident with the current Northern Cape Province. Namaqualand is divided by the Orange River into Little Namaqualand (the western part of the Northern Cape Province, which was described by Shortridge (1942) as lying between the Orange River and 31°S, and from the west coast to 19°E) and Great Namaqualand, which is in Namibia. When the term Namaqualand is used it is not always certain which side of the Orange River is intended. Further east, what was once known as the Bechuanaland Protectorate is present-day Botswana whereas British Bechuanaland Rodentia· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 20 Acknowledgements · · · · · · · · 32 References· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 32 Appendices · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 35 became part of South Africa in 1895 (Skead 1973). The latter comprises the area south of the Molopo River between Kuruman in the Northern Cape Province and Vryburg in the North West Province. Thus, reference to Bechuanaland may mean modern-day Botswana or either of two South African provinces. Study of the micromammals in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa has been periodic after a surprisingly early start, given the remoteness of the region. Possibly the first records are those by Gordon in 1779 of animals he called ‘blesmollen’ (Georychus capensis) from Ellenboogfontein (as discussed by Rookmaker 1989, pp. 115, 304, 307) and of the short-eared elephant shrew Macroscelides proboscideus from Voorsigtigskloof. A further 50 years elapsed before Smith described (1836) and illustrated (1849) material he collected from the Northern Cape. Around the same time, according to Skead (2011), Alexander (1838) and Backhouse (1844) encountered mole-rats in Namaqualand, and Backhouse also saw a probable Myotomys unisulcatus in the Herbert District (Skead 2011). A further 70 years after that C.D. Rudd undertook a collecting trip in Little Namaqualand (Thomas & Schwann 1904), and R.B. Woosman and R.E. Dent collected in the Kuruman area (Schwann 1906). Between the early 1920s (Shortridge 1942; Shortridge & Carter 1938; Thomas & Hinton 1923) and the early 1950s 10 African Natural History, Volume 7, 2011 A B C D E Fig. 1. Location of quarter-degree squares from which material is represented. A, New, unpublished owl-pellet material. B, Published before 1930 (triangle = questionable location). C, Published between 1930 and 1979. D, Published from 1980 onwards. E, Archaeological material. See Appendices 1–5 for further details. (Lundholm 1955) further periodic collection was undertaken in the western part of the province but it was not until the 1970s that concerted attention was paid to the northcentral region that is encompassed in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (previously the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park) (De Graaff 1974; Nel & Rautenbach 1975; Nel et al. 1984; Rautenbach & Nel 1975; Rautenbach 1971) as well as the Augrabies Falls National Park (De Graaff 1974; Rautenbach et al. 1979). Although earlier work was based on conventional collecting, most recent information on the distribution of micromammals in the Northern Cape Province has come from the remains of animals eaten by barn owls. Davis (1959) was the pioneer of this line of investigation in South Africa and, indeed, he (Davis 1958) and Nel & Nolte (1965) listed the micromammals of the then Kalahari Gemsbok National Park based on this source of evidence even before the detailed fieldwork discussed above was undertaken. Following the report by Vernon (1972) for southern Africa as a whole, Dean (1975) and MacDonald & Dean (1984) restricted their attention to the Northern Cape Province. Again, the central part of the province remained effectively unexplored although, in this case, one reason is quite clear; finding barn owl roosts in this arid region is not easy. Avery & Avery: Micromammals in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, past and present Barn owls, primarily, with or without other predators, must also have been responsible for accumulating micromammalian remains in archaeological sites (see e.g. Andrews 1990) so the contribution of owls to our knowledge of micromammalian distributions also has a historical perspective. So far, not many archaeological sites have been found in the Northern Cape Province, for which there are various possible reasons. One may be the paucity of suitable caves and rockshelters. Another could be (...truncated)