Richard Dean awarded BirdLife South Africa's Gill Memorial Medal

04 Jun 2009
04 Jun 2009

Richard Dean was awarded the Gill Memorial Medal at the Annual General Meeting of BirdLife South Africa (BLSA) held in Phalaborwa in March this year. The award was made in acknowledgement of the considerable contribution Richard has made to the study of birds in southern Africa in his forty years as an ornithologist, particularly in the way of publications in both the scientific and popular press.

Richard started his ornithological career at Barberspan Ornithological Research Station in 1974. After heading the Tzaneen Nature Reserve and, later, the Nylsvley Nature Reserve, Richard took up a research officer post at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute in 1986, a post he held until his retirement in 2006. While at the Fitz he started a masters degree and graduated cum laude, in 1991, with an MSc on the Ecological effects of mound-building by the harvester ant Messor capensis on Karoo plants. He followed this with a PhD, graduating in 1995 with a thesis titled Where birds are rare or fill the air: the protection of the endemic and nomadic avifaunas of the Karoo.

The areas of research of particular interest to Richard include the avifauna of Angola and the ecology of the Karoo and have led to the following significant publications:

  • Dean, W.R.J. 2000. The birds of Angola. Herts: British Ornithologists’ Union. B.O.U. checklist no. 18. 433pp.
  • Dean, W.R.J. & Milton, S.J., eds. 1999. The Karoo: ecological patterns and processes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 374pp.
  • Dean, W.R.J. 2004. Nomadic desert birds. Berlin: Springer. 185pp.
  • Esler, K.J., Milton, S.J., Dean, W.R., eds. 2006. Karoo veld: Ecology and Management. Briza Publications. 224pp.

In addition to producing an impressive publication list, Richard was editor of the journal Ostrich (published by BirdLife South Africa) from 2000 to 2006 and, together with Phil Hockey and Peter Ryan, edited the seventh edition of Roberts' Birds of southern Africa, published in 2005.

The award was presented by BLSA President, Rick Nuttal, and attended by BLSA dignitaries and council members. Richard is the sixth person from the FitzPatrick Institute to receive this award and joins a list that includes Jack Winterbottom (1960), Jack Skead (1966), Roy Siegfried (1976), Bunty Rowan (1983) and Richard Brooke (1988).

[Compiled from information provided by Pam Barrett including the nomination for the award (by Les Underhill) and accompanying publication list]