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Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology

1959 establishments in South AfricaAnimal welfare organisations based in South AfricaBiological research institutesBiology organization stubsOrganizations established in 1959
Ornithological organizationsOrnithology stubsResearch institutes in South AfricaUniversity of Cape Town
FitzPatrick Institute 2
FitzPatrick Institute 2

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”.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology
University Avenue, Cape Town Rondebosch

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N -33.9564113 ° E 18.4611377 °
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John Day Zoology Building

University Avenue
7700 Cape Town, Rondebosch
Western Cape, South Africa
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FitzPatrick Institute 2
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University of Cape Town

The University of Cape Town (UCT) (Afrikaans: Universiteit van Kaapstad, Xhosa: iYunivesithi yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest university in Sub-Saharan Africa in continuous operation.UCT is organised in 57 departments across six faculties offering bachelor's (NQF 7) to doctoral degrees (NQF 10) solely in the English language. Home to 30 000 students, it encompasses six campuses in the Capetonian suburbs of Rondebosch, Hiddingh, Observatory, Mowbray, and the Waterfront. Although UCT was founded by a private act of Parliament in 1918, the Statute of the University of Cape Town (issued in 2002 in terms of the Higher Education Act) sets out its structure and roles and places the Chancellor - currently, Dr Precious Moloi Motsepe - as the ceremonial figurehead and invests real leadership authority in the Vice Chancellor, currently Prof Mamokgethi Phakeng, who is accountable to the University Council. A vibrant student community consisting of over 100 societies and clubs caters to diverse interests such as religion, politics, culture, community outreach and sport. UCT prominently appears in national leagues such as, but not limited to, the Varsity Cup. The historic academic, sporting, and political rivalry between UCT and Stellenbosch University brought about the nickname 'Ikeys', originally an anti-Semitic epithet for students of the university. UCT is consistently the highest-ranked African university in the QS World University Rankings, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and the Academic Ranking of World Universities. Its Commerce, Law, and Medicine Faculties are consistently placed among the hundred best internationally. It is the only African member of the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF) within the World Economic Forum, which is made up of 26 of the world's top universities.Five alumni, staff members, and researchers associated with UCT have won the Nobel Prize. As of March 2020, 35 UCT staff members are A-rated researchers according to the National Research Foundation of South Africa (almost 30% of the national total), which is the most prestigious ranking possible in the NRF rating classification scheme, a recognition of researchers who are unequivocally recognised by their peers as leading international scholars in their field for the high quality and impact of their recent research outputs. 88 staff members are part of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa.

2009 Table Mountain fire
2009 Table Mountain fire

The 2009 Table Mountain fire was a large fire in and around the Table Mountain National Park in Cape Town, South Africa. It broke out at approximately 20:30 on 17 March 2009 in the vicinity of Rhodes Memorial and initial fears were that the fire would spread to UCT's Upper Campus. The Table Mountain National Park quickly deployed firefighting personnel on the mountain, but the fire spread due to the strong winds. At around 23:20 on Tuesday evening, the fire started moving up Devil's Peak and by 00:00 was at the tip and making its way around the mountain to the suburbs of Tamboerskloof, Oranjezicht, Vredehoek and Gardens on the north side. The flames were engulfing the mountain and the huge amounts of smoke made it hard for rescue and fire-fighting helicopters making their way to the fire. By 00:30, people from the aforementioned areas were told to evacuate due to the strong winds pushing the fire around the mountain. By this time, Fire & Rescue Services had deployed 29 fire engines and 90 firefighters who were assisted by 45 firefighters from the South African National Parks and volunteers of Disaster Management The day following the fire, four helicopters, including a South African National Defence Force Atlas Oryx, were called in at dawn to water-bomb the fire, and to lift a team of firefighters high onto the mountain. Table Mountain National Park Fire Manager Philip Prins said about 500 hectares (1,200 acres) of park land had been burned: some fynbos, some renosterveld, some grass, and stands of pine trees.

Groote Schuur
Groote Schuur

Groote Schuur ([ɣroːtə sxyːr], Dutch for "big shed") is an estate in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1657, the estate was owned by the Dutch East India Company which used it partly as a granary. Later, the farm and farmhouse was sold into private hands. Groote Schuur was later acquired by William De Smidt, and remained in the family's possession until it was sold by Abraham De Smidt, Surveyor General of the Cape Colony, in 1878, and was bought by Hester Anna van der Byl of the prominent Van Der Byl / Coetsee family. In 1891 Cecil Rhodes leased it from her. He later bought it from her in 1893 for £60 000, and had it converted and refurbished by the architect Sir Herbert Baker. The Cape Dutch building, located in Rondebosch, on the slopes of Devil's Peak, the outlying shoulder of Table Mountain, was originally part of the Dutch East India Company's granary constructed in the seventeenth century. Little of the original house remained after a fire in 1896. The traditional thatched roof was replaced by sturdier Welsh slates. Rhodes gave no strict instructions as to what he wanted from Baker. Rhodes abhorred any mechanically made items (such as hinges for windows) in the house and set out to remove them and have them replaced with brass and bronze items that would be cast. Baker replaced the front of the house, added a long stoep in the back and constructed a new wing. The wing contained a billiard room and master bedroom above on the second floor that contained a large bay window overlooking Devil's Peak. He also added a grand hall with a massive fireplace.Sir Herbert Baker also played a significant role in the furnishing of the house. After initially furnishing with modern furniture from London, Rhodes, influenced by Baker, began a shift from the modern to more traditional Cape furniture. This would mark the beginning of Cecil Rhodes’ collection of colonial furnishings.The gardens of the house were as Rhodes demanded 'masses of colour'. Surrounding the house was a mass of roses, hydrangeas, cannas, bougainvilleas and fuchsias. Farther away from the house on the slopes of Devil's Peak, Rhodes kept antelopes, zebra, eland, wildebeest and ostriches.Rhodes was always a generous host while at Groote Schuur. He used the residence as much as a business and political headquarters as a home. His life at the time was one of dinner parties and meetings on the stoep, where he would be joined by as many as fifty people.From 1910 to 1984, it was the official Cape residence of the Prime Ministers of South Africa and continued as a presidential residence of P. W. Botha and F. W. De Klerk. However, P.W. Botha never resided there, opting rather to live in Westbrooke.In May 1956, Time magazine reported, "a party was held at Groote Schuur for South Africa's Nationalist Prime Minister Johannes Strydom after he had won the parliamentary campaign to continue white supremacy in a land of 2.6 million whites and 10 million nonwhites. The party was given by some of the younger nationalists and their wives to honor him. They organized a caravan of 130 vehicles and slowly drove up to the Groote Schuur. After reaching the house, they began to sing old Boer war songs—the Volksliederen of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. A speech was given by Mrs. M.D.J. Koster, the only female member of the parliament, 'Every white woman and every white mother thanks you from the depth of her heart.' Strydom’s response to this was, 'We must never be swerved from our goals...the struggle must continue.'"The building was the site for the signing of the historic "Groote Schuur Minute" between Nelson Mandela, of the African National Congress (ANC), and F.W. De Klerk, the then State President of the Republic of South Africa, on 4 May 1990. The document was a commitment between the two parties towards the resolution of the existing climate of violence and intimidation as well as a commitment to stability and to a peaceful process of negotiations. A working party was established to investigate the granting of temporary immunity to ANC cadres, to advise on how to deal with the release of political prisoners and to make recommendations on the definition of political offences. Under Nelson Mandela, as President of the Republic of South Africa, the Genadendal building (formerly called Westbrooke) became the Cape Town residence of the South African President. Groote Schuur is now a museum and open to the public only by appointment.