The Research Department focuses its efforts on five main research axes, under which the on-going, past, and future research projects fall. These research axes have been selected to meet Transfrontier Africa’s requirements in terms of ecological monitoring, research development, sustainable use of the landscape and wildlife, security, and community empowerment. Indeed, covering all these aspects is essential to ensure that comprehensive and durable conservation and management strategies can be designed and implemented.
Biodiversity and Trophic Interactions
Developing our understanding of species diversity, intra- and interspecific interactions, spatiotemporal movements, and habitat requirements for wildlife.
Community Development
Investigating the effects of the Bush Babies and Black Mambas programmes in the surrounding communities and of the perception of these communities towards wildlife, conservation, and (illegal) wildlife utilisation.
Human-Wildlife Conflicts
Identifying mitigation methods for human-wildlife conflicts in nature reserves and surrounding areas, to reduce human losses/injuries and structure/crops damages caused by wildlife as well as human impact on wildlife populations.
Wildlife Criminology
Improving our understanding of and ability to prevent illegal wildlife trade, with a focus on poaching prevention, using an interdisciplinary approach, building on sociology, criminology, and biogeography, to provide holistic and comprehensive answers to scientific and security questions.
Ecological Monitoring
Ensuring the sustainable use of the landscape and its resources, the monitoring of endangered species and the development of policies for their effective protection and informing wildlife and landscape management policies.
On-going research projects
To read about all our projects and get more detailed reports, theses and publications on the various projects, click below.
Each year we apex predators' scats to analyse their diet and prey preferences in our reserve. Prey species hairs can be extracted from predators' scats and identified using a microscope.
Ecological Carrying Capacity
Vegetation composition and density are evaluated each year to assess the ecological carrying capacity of the reserve, and compared to the game count data.
Wildlife monitoring
Threatened and iconic species, such as rhinos, wild dogs, Southern ground-hornbills and vultures are closely monitored and the data is shared with global or regional conservation programs.
Human-elephant conflicts
We assist Professor Mark Wright, from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, in his investigation on the potential of bees’ alarm pheromones as a bio-deterrent product to mitigate human-elephant conflicts ethically.
Alien vegetation control
We study the effectiveness of control methods for invasive alien species, as they represent a threat to ecosystems and native species across the world, as they reduce biodiversity and disrupt ecological functions.
Subterranean waters
The trend in water table levels is monitored over time and is linked to annual rainfalls, to establish recharge and consumption rates and propose management measures, as water is a scarce resource essential to the ecosystem.
The term 'eDNA' refers to small DNA pieces that are left behind in the environment by all animals. The goal of this study is to collect and analyse eDNA from water, dust, and air to identify all species of vertebrates that walked through the studied area. Using eDNA for diversity monitoring is a relatively new field, and the use of airborne eDNAhas never been tested in situ before.
The species found with the different methods will be compared amongst each other and with camera trap data to assess their respective accuracy and determine the potential of using airborne eDNA as a monitoring tool in terrestrial environments.
Nete Helt Zielke & Louise Spanggaard - MSc Students at Alboorg University, Denmark.
Key points
First study conducted in situ testing airborne eDNA as a diversity measure tool.
Determination of the potential of using airborne eDNA as a monitoring tool in terrestrial environments.
Dates
The fieldwork will be conducted between October and December 2023.
Most of our upcoming research projects fit into our 5 research axes (see Research home page), determined to answer the reserve management needs and current conservation questions. Some additional projects may be added if the need arises, especially in the context of scientific partnerships. The research projects conducted often rely on the contribution of interns, who assist in the collection and analysis of the data.
