Research Associate

Dr W. Richard J. Dean MSc (Natal), PhD (Cape Town) Tel / Fax: +27 (0)23 541 1828 (Prince Albert) Fax: +27 (0)21 650 3295 (Fitztitute) Email: lycium@telkomsa.net

Activities and research interests

Plant-animal interactions, nesting and foraging ecology of birds, effects of land-use on birds, evolution of nomadism.

Richard Dean completed his MSc on ant-plant interactions at the University of Natal. He completed his PhD at the Fitztitute in 1995 on the conservation of nomadic birds in the Karoo. Richard has collected and observed bird nesting behaviour in Angola, Botswana and Zimbabwe. He has worked on the management of protected waterbird areas in the Northwest and Limpopo Provinces and Mpumalanga, and on the Land-use effects on insects and birds in the Karoo and Kalahari. His sabbatical research was on birds and ants in set-aside lands in central Germany. He has also edited a Cambridge University Press synthesis of Karoo ecological research, is the scientific editor of BirdLife South Africa's journal, the Ostrich, and has run a field course in ecology for postgraduates.

Research programmes

Recent peer-reviewed publications

2012

Dean, W.R.J., Franke, U., Joseph, G., Gonçalves, F.M.. Mills, M.S.L., Milton, S.J., Monadjem, A. and Oschadleus, H.D. (in press). Type specimens in the bird collection at Lubango, Angola. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club IP

2011

Mills, M.S.L. , Olmos, F. , Melo, M. & Dean, W.R.J. 2011. Mount Moco: its importance to the conservation of Swierstra’s Francolin Pternistis swierstrai and the Afromontane avifauna of Angola. Bird Conservation International 21:119-133. IF 0.962

Scott, H.A., Dean, W.R.J. & Watson, L.H. 2011. Breeding success and changes in numbers of African Black Oystercatchers Haematopus moquini in relation to habitat quality and protection status. Marine Ornithology 39: 189–199. No IF

2010

Child, M.F., Milton, S.J., Dean, W. R. J., Lipsey, M. K., Puttick, J., Hempson, T. N., Mann G. K., Babiker, H., Chaudrey, J., Humphrey, G., Joseph, G., Okes, N. C., Potts, R. & Wistebaar, T. 2010. Tree-grass coexistence in a flood-disturbed, semi-arid savanna system. Landscape Ecology 25:315-326. IF 3.293

Mills, M.S.L., Franke, U. Joseph, G., Miato, F., Milton, S., Monadjem, A., Oschadleus, D. & Dean, W.R.J. 2010. Cataloguing the Lubango Bird Skin Collection: towards an atlas of Angolan bird distributions. Bulletin of the African Bird Club 17:43-53. No IF

Milton, S.J. & Dean, W.R.J. 2010. Plant invasions in arid areas: special problems and solutions: a South African perspective. Biological Invasions 12:3935–3948. IF 3.074

Seymour, C.L. & Dean, W.R.J. 2010 The influence of changes in habitat structure on the species composition of bird assemblages in the southern Kalahari. Austral Ecology 35:581-592.
IF 1.578

Seymour, C.L., Milton, S.J., Joseph, G.S., Dean, W.R.J., Ditlhobolo, T. & Cumming, G.S. 2010. Twenty years of rest returns grazing potential, but not palatable plant diversity, to Karoo rangeland, South Africa. Journal of Applied Ecology 47:859-867. IF 4.197