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Ms Sally Hofmeyr
Thesis: Conservation impacts of environmental change on populations of threatened large terrestrial bird species in South Africa
Email: salhofmeyr [at] gmail [dot] com
Sally grew up in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), and began her tertiary education at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus. She completed her BSc(Agric) in Wildlife Science in 2000, cum laude. Her fourth year thesis was entitled Theoretical foraging models for the cape griffon vulture (Gyps coprotheres). She ‘discovered’ birds on a field trip in third year, and ever since then has been an enthusiastic birder and bird ringer. While at Pietermaritzburg Sally was also an active rock-climber and hiker, and a member of the Mountain Club of South Africa KZN Section’s mountain rescue team.
She took two years out before doing her MSc, working in South Africa and in the UK, travelling, and finally spending 3 months living and working in the Kruger National Park.
In 2003 Sally did a one-year coursework Masters in African Mammalogy through the Mammal Research Institute at the University of Pretoria. Her thesis was entitled Giraffes and the pollination ecology of knobthorns (Acacia nigrescens). It was an intense and thoroughly enjoyable year, filled with lots of hard work and several exciting field trips, including another three weeks in the Kruger Park doing the fieldwork for her project.
Between finishing her Masters and starting her PhD Sally spent another 2.5 years in the UK, where, among other things, she worked at an outdoor environmental education centre in the UK for two seasons. After she returned to South Africa in 2006 she worked for a mapping company in Durban as the camera operator on their aerial survey flights, helped out with the SA-GAINS Avian Influenza project being run through the Percy FitzPatrick Institute at UCT, and did a five-month internship with the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission Chair’s office in Kirstenbosch.
When she left the IUCN at the end of April 2008, she joined the ADU and started work on her PhD. Her project involves analysing the data produced by the Coordinated Avifaunal Roadcounts (CAR) project and the two bird atlas projects, SABAP1 and SABAP2, to produce population trends for large terrestrial birds (bustards, korhaans, cranes and more) over much of South Africa. These population trends will then be compared with weather data to identify how climatic factors affect the birds. Sally will also look at the species' habitat use, and will use this to work out how land-use changes are likely to be affecting these species. She hopes to use her findings to contribute to updated Red List assessments for many of the species, and to improve management recommendations given to farmers in order to assist them in the conservation of these big birds and the biodiversity on which they depend.
Apart from birding, other activities she enjoys include singing with the Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town, reading, photography, going to concerts and the theatre, and walking in the mountains and exploring this beautiful area as much as possible.
