@adamwelz @jeremygilmore @tonyrebelo
While I was a teenager, growing up in Cape Town in the 'sixties, the ring-necked dove (Streptopelia capicola, https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/2959-Streptopelia-capicola and https://thebdi.org/2022/03/08/cape-turtle-dove-streptopelia-capicola/) was the common indigenous columbid in this metropolitan area in South Africa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town).
At that time, the red-eyed dove (Streptopelia semitorquata, https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/2988-Streptopelia-semitorquata) was nominally present in Cape Town. However, I was unfamiliar with it or its call.
Today, the latter species is unquestionably the common member of its genus in Cape Town, with the erstwhile commonness of the former species nearly forgotten.
Two aspects of this species-replacement, which has been natural and spontaneous albeit ultimately anthropogenic, warrant mention here.
These are
Such changes, although remarkable in hindsight, can seem so mundane that naturalists and scientists do not bother to write them down for posterity. The substitution has been obvious to me over my lifetime. However, there is a risk that the fact of it may fail to be transmitted to subsequent generations.
What is simply a matter of experience for me may come, in future, to be merely some unsubstantiated historical hypothesis.
So, for the record:
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https://thewildebeest.co.za/01218-cape-turtle-dove.php#:~:text=Streptopelia%20capicola,site%20in%20parks%20and%20gardens.
A similar replacement has occurred in urban areas in Namibia (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286446507_Avian_assemblages_of_urbanized_habitats_in_north-central_Namibia)
The spontaneous expansion of distribution and habitat of Streptopelia semitorquata in the southwestern Cape is significant in the context of South Africa.
However, this change is tiny relative to that seen in a congener, Streptopelia decaocto, in the Northern Hemisphere (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/2969-Streptopelia-decaocto).
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