Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr Alan Tristram Kenneth Lee BSc Hons (Witwatersrand, RSA), Dip Comp (Open, UK), PhD (Manchester Metropolitan, UK) Birds & Environmental Change Partnership Programme Climate Change and BioAdaptation Division, Kirstenbosch Research Centre South African National Biodiversity Institute Tel: +27 (0)44 752 1254 Cell: +27 (0)79 245 4015 Email: alan.tk.lee@googlemail.com

For his PhD Alan walked hundreds of kilometres through the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest collecting data on parrots and spent hours watching these beautiful birds eating clay from river banks. When not dodging Jaguars and Bushmasters, he advised local protected area management on how best to manage claylicks for the benefit of both the birds and ecotourists, based on his principal areas of expertise – distribution modelling and distance sampling.

On returning to South Africa he developed a postdoc research proposal to understand what was going on with the patterns of appearance and disappearance of  the Fynbos endemic birds in his ‘backyard’, Blue Hill Nature Reserve, part of the Baviaanskloof Mega-reserve. As a Conservation Biologist, Alan was concerned about the apparent decrease in reporting rate from SABAP2 data for the Protea Seedeater and Cape Rockjumper. Supported by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and Birdlife South Africa, Alan embarked on an epic 3000km cycle ride to survey the fynbos endemic species across the Western Cape in order to resolve the status of these two species and determine the influence of climate change (this exciting journey is documented at http://www.bluehillescape.blogspot.com/).

Research Programs

Climate Change Vulnerability & Adaptation

Peer reviewed and popular publications

Alan’s publications can be found here: http://www.bluehillescape.co.za/Peru/aims.html