Habitat mapping of Kuruman River Reserve and surrounding ranches
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
University of Zurich
Contact: paul.haverkamp@ieu.uzh.ch
My research interests focus on wildlife habitat utilization and distribution and I am using my background in remote sensing to develop a habitat map for the Kuruman River Reserve. I am using Landsat imagery along with GPS points and associated pictures taken from these points to classify and verify different habitat types important for the various species around the reserve, including meerkats, pied babblers, tortoises, ground squirrels, and more. Using this map, I plan to investigate the landscape of fear for meerkats, by examining different predator pressures and how anti-predator behaviours change in the different habitats. I am also interested in the acoustic landscape of the reserve, and how meerkats change call structure depending on the different habitats and vegetation.