Visitors

Fredrik Dalerum from the University of Stockholm, Sweden visited shortly in December 2004. Fred worked at the other end of the world, in Alaska, where he studied wolverines. In 2004 he was based at the meerkat project of Tim Clutton-Brock in the Kalahari, where he was writing up his PhD thesis on the wolverines.

Andrew McKechnie: Lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, visited in September 2004. Andrew is studying ecological physiology. He was very excited hearing the nightjars calling while we had a braai (BBQ) at the research station. Andrew studies torpor in birds. Torpor means that some species can drop their body temperature dramatically and by this save energy during periods of inactivity, e.g. the night. Andrew suggests that nightjars do the same and maybe even not only for one night, but for several days during winter, when it is cold and no food (insects) is available. He might come back to Goegap to study whether nightjars really show such a kind of hibernation, which would be extremely unusual for birds.

Prof. von Willert from the University of Münster (Germany) visited us beginning of September 2004. He was supervising the botanical part of the diploma thesis of Christina Keller.

Mike Scantlebury: Postdoc from the University of Pretoria. Mike is an eco-physiologist. Whereas physiologists traditionally studied animals in an artificial laboratory, scientists like Mike are interested in how an animal’s physiology works in its natural habitat and how it helps the animal to cope with environmental challenges. In July 2004, Mike spent ten days in Goegap, studying the energetics of huddling in striped mice (coopertion with Carsten). He visited for one day in December 2004. He wasd back in March 2005 to measure oxygen consumption in striped mice, depending on whether the were sun basking or not.

Lynn and Galen Rathbun from California, visited for a few days in July 2004. Galen is the world leading authority in the research on elephant-shrews, or sengis, as he prefers to call them (as they are not shrews and only very distantly related to elephants). Galen was one of the first scientists studying the natural behavior of small mammals by observing them in their natural habitat. Of course he was also very interested in the sengis in Goegap. He was surprised when he saw our version of the round-eared elephant shrew (Macroscelides proboscideus). They are much larger and differ in color from the round-eared elephant shrews Galen saw in Namibia. He assumes that these are two different subspecies, maybe even species.

Victor Loehr: PhD student from the University of the Western Cape, living in the Netherlands. Victor studies the smallest tortoise of the world (Homopuus signatus), which occurs in Namaqualand. He visited us every year since 2001 together with his field assistants.