Doctoral Students*

Ben Smit BSc Hons (KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg), MSc (Wits)

Homepage @ University of Pretoria

For as long as I can remember I’ve been a bird fanatic. In 2003, my broad interest in geography, plants and animals led me to the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, where I started my BSc degree in Zoology and Grassland Science, and BSc Honours in Zoology in 2006. During my final undergrad year I developed a strong interest in ecological and evolutionary physiology of birds, and in 2007 moved to the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where I started my MSc in Zoology with Prof. Andrew McKechnie. My MSc project was based in the Kalahari Desert where I investigated the use of torpor in southern Africa’s two small owl species and seasonal adjustments in maintenance metabolism in Kalahari birds.

I am currently registered for my PhD at the University of Pretoria, under Prof. McKechnie and will be co-supervised by Prof. Phil Hockey from the Percy FitzPatrick Institute. My PhD project is based in the southern Kalahari Desert and will investigate the effects of heat on behavioural and physiological responses in Kalahari birds, focusing on drinking behaviours, time-activity budgets, water turn-over rates and thermoregulatory patterns, to predict the vulnerability of species to climate change.

Recent peer-reviewed publications

2011

Boyles, J.G., Seebacher, S., Smit, B. & McKechnie, A.E. 2011. Adaptive thermoregulation in endotherms may alter responses to climate change. Integrative and Comparative Biology 51:676-690. IF 2.626

Smit, B., Boyles, J.G., Brigham, R.M., McKechnie, A.E. 2011. Torpor in dark times: patterns of heterothermy are associated with the lunar cycle in a nocturnal bird. Journal of Biological Rhythms DOI: 10:1177/0748730411402632.

2010

Boyles, J.G., Smit, B., McKechnie, A.E. 2010. A new comparative metric to estimate heterothermy in endotherms. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. 84:115-123.

McKechnie, A.E., Smit, B. 2010. Thermoregulation under semi-natural conditions in two species of African barbets (Piciformes: Lybiidae). Ostrich. 81(2):97-102.

Smit, B., McKechnie, A.E. 2010. Avian seasonal metabolic variation in a subtropical desert: basal metabolic rates are lower in winter than in summer. Functional Ecology. 24(2):330-339.

Smit, B., McKechnie, A.E. 2010. Do owls use torpor? Winter thermoregulation in free-ranging Pearl-spotted Owlets and African Scops-owls. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. 83(1):149-156.

*Registered at the University of Pretoria.