Mr Richard Sherley

Thesis: Uses of natural markings on African Penguins (PhD, Bristol University, United Kingdom)
Email: richard [dot] sherley [at] bristol [dot] ac [dot] uk

Richard was born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and, aside from a brief spell in the USA, was brought up in Portsmouth on the south coast of England.

In 2002 he enrolled for a BSc degree at the University of Bristol, U.K. On a second year field course to Lundy Island (in the Bristol Channel) he fell in love with seabirds – despite choosing to spend the two weeks conducting a research project on optimal foraging in ants! Since this trip he has been an avid birder with a deep-seated interest in animal behaviour. Later in the same year he spent a summer working on an English Nature summer studentship assisting with studies on the population dynamics and mating behaviour of Xenopus laevis in Lincolnshire. This increased his interest in a career in research. His Honours project was in Zoology and focused on social learning in the European starling Sturnus vulgaris. He graduated from Bristol with a BSc(Hons) in Psychology and Zoology in 2005.

After finishing his degree, Richard spent a few months travelling in Europe before starting a job as an Editorial Assistant in London for a medical literature review service. To keep himself sane, he also took up a volunteer position at the London Aquarium, until he returned to Bristol to study for his PhD.

Richard is currently studying in the interdisciplinary research group COMBINE at the University of Bristol (UoB). The PhD is funded by the Leverhulme Trust and supervised by Prof. Peter Barham (H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, UoB), Prof. Innes Cuthill (School of Biological Sciences, UoB), Dr. Neill Campbell (Department of Computer Sciences, UoB) and Prof. Les Underhill (ADU). The focus of this project is to develop - and to demonstrate the effectiveness of - an intelligent, visual surveillance system that can be integrated into a colony of African Penguins Spheniscus demersus as a non-intrusive means of providing detailed and reliable data on the species.

Our recognition system films passing penguins during operation in the field

Developing the prototype system into a full-scale monitoring tool will initially involve developing the infrastructure and hardware required to create a partially autonomous system robust enough to be deployed in a largely unconstrained environment. Once this is complete the aim will be to demonstrate the efficacy of the vision system as a long-term monitoring tool for a large population. Only then will it be possible to provide high quality data on the population dynamics, foraging ecology and social behaviour of this vulnerable species.

During 2006 and 2007 Richard spent six months on Robben Island working on the recognition system and leading teams on the Earthwatch Programme on the island. This involves working with overseas volunteers to monitor the African Penguins and the other wildlife on Robben Island. In the future, Richard hopes to help in the conservation of the African Penguin by using a combination of the computer vision system and traditional techniques to examine how the birds are adapting to the changes currently taking place within their marine ecosystem.

When he is not birding or trying not to disturb the penguins on Robben Island, Richard can probably be found under the sea SCUBA diving, walking on the mountain or in Pick’n’Pay shopping for the next Earthwatch Team.

Memberships and Affiliations:

2007 – Present: The Seabird Group – Ordinary Member.
2007 – Present: Animal Demography Unit, University of Cape Town, South Africa – International Research Affiliate.
2006 – Present: The Society for Conservation Biology – Student Member.
2006 – Present: The Applied Vision Association – Student Member.
2006 – Present: University Research Centre in Behavioural Biology, University of Bristol, UK – Research Member.
2006 – Present: Bristol Zoo Gardens, UK – Research Affiliate.
2005 – Present: The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour – Student Member.

Publications:

Papers submitted or under review:

Richard B Sherley and Les G Underhill. Submitted. Unusual foraging behaviour in two introduced mammals on Robben Island, South Africa. Koedoe – African Protected Area Conservation and Science.
Les G Underhill, Richard B Sherley, Bruce M Dyer and Robert J M Crawford. Submitted. Interactions between Snakes and Seabirds on Robben, Schaapen and Meeuw Islands, Western Cape, South Africa. Ostrich.

Papers at international conferences (presenter underlined):

Tilo Burghardt, Peter J Barham, Neill Campbell, Innes C Cuthill, Richard B Sherley and T Mario Leshoro. 2007. A Fully Automated Computer Vision System for the Biometric Identification of African Penguins (Spheniscus demersus) on Robben Island. In: 6th International Penguin Conference (IPC07), p. 19, Eric J Woehler (ed.), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Richard B Sherley and Les G Underhill. 2007. Interactions between Mole Snakes Pseudaspis cana and African Penguins Spheniscus demersus on Robben Island, South Africa. In: 6th International Penguin Conference (IPC07), p. 137, Eric J Woehler (ed.), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Poster.
Richard B Sherley, Tilo Burghardt, Peter J Barham, Neill Campbell and Innes C Cuthill. 2007. Using an Automated Computer Recognition System to Identify Individual African Penguins (Spheniscus demersus): A New Perspective on Population Monitoring. In: Society for Conservation Biology 21st Annual Meeting, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Poster.

Presentations at other workshops or seminars:

Richard B Sherley. 2008. Spotting the Difference: Towards automatic population monitoring of African Penguins (Spheniscus demersus). Round Table Talks - Annual Internal Seminar Presentation, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, UK.
Richard B Sherley. 2007. Spotting the Difference: Using an Automatic Computer Vision System to Monitor African Penguins (Spheniscus demersus) on Robben Island, South Africa. Seminar at the Avian Demography Unit (ADU), Map Room, University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa.
Richard B Sherley. 2007. Spotting Penguins Biometrically. University Research Centre (URC) in Behavioural Biology Student Workshop, Institute for Advanced Studies, Royal Fort House, University of Bristol, UK.