Lecturer in Zoology

PhD Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (2017)

Phone: + 27 (0) 46 603 7708
Email: n.mgqatsa@ru.ac.za
Office: F14, First floor, Life Sciences Building

Teaching interests

• Vertebrate diversity
• Biogeography
• Behavioural ecology
• Conservation biology
• Ecology of African mammals

Research interests

• Large herbivore ecology
• Plant-animal interactions
• Ecological cascading effects

Research collaboration

Snapshot Safari – South Africa. This is a countrywide occupancy assessment and monitoring of mammals (https://www.facebook.com/SnapshotSouthAfrica/)

Students

‌Undergraduates

• Ramagogodi Ofentse (3rd year, Rhodes University) – Habitat selection by large herbivores in Shamwari Private Game Reserve. (completed, 2018)
• Zabo Sophakama (3rd year, Rhodes University) – Site fidelity in small mammals. (Completed, 2018)
• Skinner Daniella (3rd year, Rhodes University) – The environmental and economic effect of the introduction of extralimital species in the Eastern Cape Province. (Completed, 2019)
• Evers Emma (3rd year, Rhodes University) - Spotted on camera: Comparing un-baited and baited camera trap methods to estimate leopard (Panthera pardus) density. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2019)
• Mhatu Fika (3rd year, Rhodes University) - Spatial use and diet of donkeys in Grahamstown. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2019)
• Keitumetse Meko (3rd year, Rhodes University) – Determining the role of insect colonization and insect succession patterns on carrion. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2019)

Honours

• Bowers Kaylen (Rhodes University) – Diet of chacma baboon in the Eastern Cape. (Completed, 2018)
• Kitching Lana (Rhodes University) – The use of aardvark burrows by vertebrate communities. (Completed, 2018)
• Hunter Amy (Rhodes University) – Feeding ecology of aardvark at Great Fish River Reserve. (Completed, 2018)
• Nzimande Amanda (University of KwaZulu-Natal) - The browsing impact of goats on three Acacia species in Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2019)
• Bernard Kelly (Rhodes University) – The use of artificial feeding trays to assess fruit removal by birds in Albany Thicket Biome. (Completed, 2020)
• Dreyer Nicky (Rhodes University) – Population assessment of brown hyaena (Parahyaena brunnea) in small, enclosed reserves in the Eastern Cape. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2020)
• Carkeek Richard (Rhodes University) – Spatial use of Black-backed jackal. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2020)
• Gervais Agathe (University of Pretoria) – Testing the temporal avoidance hypothesis in arid areas: do subordinate carnivores avoid dominant predators in time. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2020)
• Evers Emma (University of Pretoria) – Determining home range and home range overlap of leopard (Panthera pardus) in Madikwe Game Reserve. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2020)
• Baird Tristan (University of Pretoria) – Testing the spatial avoidance hypothesis in arid areas: do subordinate carnivores change their spatial behaviour in the absence of dominant predators. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2020)
• Shah Neev (University of Pretoria) – Determining if herbivores change their behaviour in the absence of dominant predators in arid areas of South Africa. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2021)
• Berg Pearla (Rhodes University) – Behaviour of vervet monkeys in a forested communal settlement. (Completed, 2021)
• Amos Cameron (Rhodes University) – The temporal partitioning of prey species in the presence and absence of lions at Kariega Private Game Reserve. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2021)

Masters

• Kraai Unathi (University of KwaZulu-Natal) – Utilisation of woody plants by the Cape porcupine in mesic savannas. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2021)
• Truter Anja (Rhodes University) – The reproductive performance, demography, and spatial ecology of an extralimital white rhino population. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2021)
• Roberts Peter Jean (Rhodes University) – Assessing the density and distribution of spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta) in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Co-supervisor. (Ongoing)
• Trafford Bronwyn (Rhodes University) – The rewilding of Eastern Cape Subtropical Thicket for land restoration. (Ongoing)
• Kelly Bernard (Rhodes University) – Drivers of habitat use by mountain lions in New Mexico. (Ongoing)
• Speelman Gift (Rhodes University) - The impact of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) on tree euphorbias (Euphorbia tetragona and triangularis) in the Great Fish River Nature Reserve. (Onhold)

Doctoral

• Comley Jess (Rhodes University) – Carnivore intra-guild competition in Selati Game Reserve, Limpopo Province, South Africa. Co-supervisor. (Completed, 2019)
• Beukes Maya (Rhodes University) – Spatial and temporal drivers of mammal communities across a multi-dimensional landscape gradient in a semi-arid mountain catchment. Co-supervisor. (Ongoing)
• Rono Betty (Rhodes University) – Trends, values, and demands for nature’s contribution to people (NCP) in forested ecosystems: Mau forest in Kenya. (Ongoing)

Last Modified: Wed, 23 Nov 2022 10:39:44 SAST