Briza Publications author Richard Dean is an ornithologist with a strong interest in biogeography, particularly in the effects of historical and present land use changes on the distributions of birds. He has worked in the field in Angola, Cabinda, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. In the 1970’s he was a Research assistant for the Transvaal Division of Nature Conservation at Barberspan Ornithological Research Station in Northwest Province, followed by a brief spell as Officer-in-Charge of Tzaneen Nature Reserve, Limpopo Province, and a longer spell as Officer-in-Charge of Nylsvley Nature Reserve.
From July 1986 to December 2005 he was a Research Officer at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, with a brief interlude as a Guest Scientist at the UFZ-Centre for Environmental Research, Bad Lauchstdt, Germany. Studies during this period included the effects of small-scale disturbances in set-aside agricultural lands and the factors promoting the formation of thickets in abandoned cherry orchards. Projects in the Karoo have mostly been in collaboration with S. J. Milton, and have included investigations of soil nutrient status, cicada biology, ant biology, bird-plant interactions, densities of birds in rangelands lightly and heavily grazed by domestic livestock, seed dispersal by birds, GIS mapping of bird species distributions, collaborative modelling studies on the movements of nomadic birds, and the historical distribution of birds in southern Africa. Now retired, he is currently a Research Associate with the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town.
Books by Richard Dean
Click on the titles below to shop online at shop.briza.co.za
More information on Richard Dean
Richard has published several recent major publications, among a total of over 200 scientific publications. These include a synthesis of research in the Karoo (Cambridge University Press, 1999), a monograph on the birds of Angola (British Ornithologists Union, 2000) and a book on nomadic desert birds (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2004). Richard has also edited (jointly with PAR Hockey and P Ryan) the revision of Roberts’ Birds of Southern Africa (2005), as well as worked alongside Karen Esler and Sue Milton on the revision of Karoo Veld. Ecology and Management.