Nearly half of all bird species across the world are declining, including many that rely on freshwater systems. Earth’s freshwater ecosystems have seen significant declines in the last 50 years, harming waterbird populations, many of which now rely on anthropogenic water sources. Nearly a century ago, Kruger National Park (KNP) started building dams, which were occupied by bird communities. Understanding how birds use these dams can inform management decisions, such as whether to close dams, which dams to close, where to construct tourist infrastructure, and what characteristics new dams should have. We investigated how size and vegetative characteristics of southern KNP’s dams impact waterbird abundance, species richness, density, species richness per m2 of surface area, and species richness per perimeter meter. To do this, we conducted 30-minute point counts at 17 dams and compared these results to field-collected and GIS variables using generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) and linear regressions. Our predictor variables included surface area, distance to next water source, perimeter, % vegetated shoreline, and % aquatic plant cover. We found that increasing dam perimeter is positively correlated with both waterbird abundance and species richness. We also found that increasing shoreline vegetation is positively correlated with bird species richness. However, we found that bird species richness per perimeter meter decreases as dam size increases.

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