Acclaimed researcher and senior lecturer in the Department of Zoology, Professor Pierre Pistorius, will deliver his inaugural lecture on the MS Teams platform, titled Marine Apex Predators – Sentinels of Oceans under Siege.
In his lecture, he will share his journey, which led to an interest in marine apex predators – a term used to denote upper-trophic level predators – include seabirds, marine mammals and sharks. These animals are generally visible and available for observations for some part of their annual cycle.
Prof Pistorius has spent time in some of the more remote parts of the world, studying marine predators in areas where direct human impacts have been limited.
In his lecture, he will draw attention to how the field of ‘biologging science’ – the science of studying animals through deployment of instrumentation on study animals – has greatly improved our understanding of conservation threats that marine predators face, and also allowed the identification of areas of ecological and biological importance that can benefit from spatial protection. He will argue for the value of using marine apex predators to communicate biodiversity challenges to the public and the importance of social media to obtain this objective.
Prof Pistorius has been named as the University’s Researcher of the Year on three occasions – 2015, 2018 and 2019. He has reviewed academic papers for over 20 scientific journals and serves on the editorial advisory board of the African Journal of Marine Science and on the editorial board for Frontiers in Marine Science, and Marine and Freshwater Behaviour and Physiology.
Register for the lecture on this link.