Zelda du Toit
Zelda is undertaking a Philosophiae Doctor degree through the University of the Free State. She is studying the evolutionary relationship between the four African pangolin species, is investigating the population structure of Temminck’s ground pangolin populations in southern Africa and is also developing Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) to enable investigators to determine the region where samples originated from when this is not known. This will be particularly useful to law enforcement personnel when they confiscate pangolin derivatives that are being illegally traded.
Abimbola Baiyewu-Mpindu
Abimbola was awarded her Master of Technology degree at the Tshwane University of Technology. Abimbola is studying the prevalence of Temminck’s Ground Pangolins in the Traditional African Medicine trade in South Africa, and also documenting the various uses of pangolins and their derivatives in this trade.
Christine Steyn
Dr Christine Steyn is a lecturer for the undergraduate students in Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Veterinary Science. She has a passion for teaching, research and conservation of the environment. She is currently registered for her Master’s Degree in Anatomy (MSc Veterinary Science) and her research will focus on the gross anatomy of the front limb of Temminck’s Ground Pangolin. There is currently very little known about the functional adaptations of these animal’s limbs specific to their environment, and Christine hopes that with the research done she will be able to shed some light on the niche that these animals occupy in the wild.
Maxwell Boakye
Maxwell has a doctoral degree through the Tshwane University of Technology, and is studying the prevalence of pangolin species in West African bushmeat markets. He is also documenting the various uses of pangolins and their derivatives in Traditional African Medicine in West Africa, as well as assessing the conservation impact that this trade is having on pangolin populations.
Thando Radebe
Thando is pursuing her Master of Technology degree at the Tshwane University of Technology. Thando is investigating the prevalence and identity of ectoparasites in African pangolin species using both morphological and molecular approaches, and will be relating her results back to the possible effects that these ectoparasite burdens have on individual pangolins.
Sean Heighton
Sean is currently addressing the current paucity of data on diseases of pangolins, and is conducting the first ever baseline data of Smutsia temminckii’s bacterial prevalence and diversity using single gene and metagenomics approaches.