What do beavers in Scotland, hyena in Botswana and South African stromatolites all have in common? They are all unique, important contributors to their local ecosystems 鈥� and were the focus of Professor Richard Kingsford鈥檚 travels as the 精东视频鈥檚 2024 Graeme Caughley Fellow.
This travelling fellowship enables ecologists from Australia or New Zealand to share their expertise by visiting scientific centres in other countries.
Professor Kingsford, from UNSW, connected with wildlife managers in Europe and Africa with the aim of sharing expertise to improve conservation outcomes in Australia and internationally.
鈥淭hrough my visits I wanted learn more about the practice of adaptive management for improved conservation outcomes. I also wanted to improve international understanding of Global Ecosystem Typology 鈥� a new method for defining types of ecosystems that is helping to increase understanding of ecosystem dynamics for non-scientists.
鈥淭he fellowship expanded my understanding of the practice of reintroductions of endemic species, and increased my networks and opportunity to plan an international workshop in 2025 for the Okavango River Basin in south-west Africa,鈥� Professor Kingsford said.
Most importantly, he said, the fellowship supported him to write two manuscripts on adaptive management, both of which have been submitted for publication.
鈥淚t allowed me time to write and think and develop some new and hopefully useful ideas in effective conservation management,鈥� he said.
Professor Kingsford鈥檚 fellowship started at Kings College London, collaborating with colleagues on their work in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, which he would be visiting the following month.
He then travelled to Edinburgh and visited the Farne Islands seabird colonies, which are breeding grounds for puffins, guillemots, razorbills, and many other coastal avians. The islands were closed to visitors from 2022 to 2024 due to bird flu outbreaks which killed thousands of birds on the islands. Professor Kingsford and local researchers discussed the challenges of managing bird flu, a topic which is directly relevant to research one which he is collaborating with Parks Australia on Phillip Island off Norfolk Island, where he and his PhD student Simon Gorta are tracking the reproductive success of sooty terns.
Next stop was western Scotland to meet conservation managers responsible for reintroducing beavers at the Knapdale wildlife reserve about the challenges as well as the functional importance of this 鈥榚cosystem engineer鈥�. He plans to take the insights from this visit and apply them to his work .
He rounded out the European phase of his fellowship with a trip to Geneva, Switzerland, to visit the IUCN Ramsar Secretariat, responsible for administering wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. The Ramsar Convention, or the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, is an intergovernmental treaty which aims to halt global wetlands loss and conserve those that remain. The main purpose of the visit was to develop a method to disseminate to the international community some of the tools that Professor Kingsford鈥檚 team has been developing at the Centre for Ecosystem Science at UNSW for managing large global data sets for reporting.
From Switzerland, Professor Kingsford travelled to Cape Town, South Africa. There he worked with colleagues at the South African National Biodiversity Institute in Kirstenbosch, discussing the implementation and development of the new Global Ecosystem Typology. Professor Kingsford was involved in the initial development of this typology, an international process led by Australian researchers, and its implementation and further development was a primary focus of his time in Southern Africa.
As part of this focus, he visited unique stromatolites 鈥� microbial reefs created by cyanobacteria 鈥� on the coast of the Southeastern Cape, followed by a range of different types of thickets, with an aim to resolve their Global Ecosystem Typology classification.
鈥淭his is a challenging classification given the variety of different thickets on the coast and inland in South Africa, and was particularly informative for understanding implementation of the Global Ecosystem Typology in these environments,鈥� Professor Kingsford said.
Complementing his trip to Scotland, he was also able to work with a colleague at South Africa National Parks and visit Karoo National Park, which has been the site for a range of reintroduced species including lions and hyena.
鈥淏oth have involved social and economic pressure for reintroduction, particularly to attract visitors, with the former proving challenging because of 鈥榚scapes鈥� from the reserve,鈥� he said.
While in Southern Africa, Professor Kingsford was able to spend a month in Botswana, visiting colleagues and government representatives, and leading an undergraduate course in ecosystem management that involved students from UNSW, the University of Botswana, Kings College London and Arizona State University. Professor Kingsford and his collaborators from these universities are now organising a multinational conference to be held this year in Maun, Botswana, to discuss past and future pressures on the Okavango River Basin.
This fellowship commemorates the work of Dr G J Caughley FAA, who was a chief research scientist with the CSIRO Wildlife and Ecology, Canberra, until his death in February 1994.
The Fellowship is financed through the generosity of his friends and colleagues, to enable ecologists resident in Australia or New Zealand to share their expertise by visiting scientific centres in countries outside of the Fellow's own country.
Applications are now open for the 2026 Graeme Caughley Travelling Fellowship.
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