BSc (Hons) (U. Canterbury, New Zealand), PhD (UCT)

I am a behavioural ecologist with a passionate focus on greater honeyguides and African ornithology, along with adjacent ecologies of African honeybees and miombo woodlands. I submitted my PhD for examination at the Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology in 2024, where I studied the cooperative behaviour between greater honeyguides and humans. At my primary field site in Niassa Special Reserve in nothern Mozambique, I measured the cost-benefit dynamics of mutualism between honey-hunters and honeyguides over six years. I also investigated the impact of wax-easting species as competitors to honeyguides and estimated the impact and sustainability of honey-hunting activity on miombo woodland ecosystems.

For my postdoctoral research, I am continuing work with Prof. Claire Spottiswoode and the Projecto Sego research group. My research will focus on a continued exploration of the persistence and sustainability of the honeyguide-human mutualism - from the bird and human perspectives, as well as from the perspective of the supporting bee and tree populations. I am excited by the challenges of studying such a fascinating inter species interaction and exploring how the mutualism impacts and is impacted by its local ecology.

Peer-reviewed Publications:

van der Wal, J.E.M., Dauda, C., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Murico, H., Begg, C.M, Begg, K.S. Jorge, A.A. and Spottiswoode, C.N. 2025. The economic value of human-honeyguide mutualism in Reserva Especial do Niassa, Moçambique. Ecosystem Services 72:101696.

Burawate, T.C. and Lloyd-Jones, D.J. 2024. Amphibian and reptile diversity of Niassa Special Reserve, Northern Mozambique. Journal of East African Natural History 113: 1-18. https://doi.org/10.2982/028.113.0101

Cram, D.L., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., van der Wal, J.E.M., Lund, J., Buanachique, I.O., Muamedi, M., Nanguar, C.I., Ngovene, A., Raveh, S., Boner, W. and Spottiswoode, C.M. 2023. Guides and cheats: producer-scrounger dynamics in the human-honeyguide mutalism. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 2920232024.

Lloyd-Jones, D.J., St Clair, J.J., Cram, D. L., Yassene, O., van der Wal, J.E. and Spottiswoode, C.N. 2022. When wax wanes: competitors for beeswax stabilize rather than jeopardize the honeyguide–human mutualism. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 289, 20221443.

Cram, D.L., van der Wal, J.E.M., Uomini, N.T., Cantor, M., Afan, A.I., Attwood, M.C., Amphaeris, J., Balasani, F., Blair, C.J., Bronstein, J.L., Buanachique, I.O., Cuthill, R.R.T., Das, J., Daura-Jorge, F.G., Deb, A., Dixit, T., Dlamini, G.S., Dounias, E., Gedi, I.I., Gruber, M., Hoffman, L.S., Holzlehner, T., Isack, H.A., Laltaika, A.E., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Lund, J., Machado, A.M.S., Mahadevan, L., Moreno, I.B., Nwaogu, C.J., Pereira, V.L., Pierotti, R., Rucunua, S.A., dos Santos, W.F., Serpa, N., Smith, B.D., Sridhar, H., Tolkova, I., Tun, T., Valle-Pereira, J.V.S., Wood, B.M., Wrangham, R.W. and Spottiswoode, C.N. 2022 The ecology and evolution of human-wildlife cooperation. People and Nature, 4, 841–855.

Torney, C.J., Laxton, M., Lloyd‐Jones, D.J., Kohi, E.M., Frederick, H.L., Moyer, D.C., Mrisha, C., Mwita, M. and Hopcraft, J.G.C. 2022. Estimating the abundance of a group‐living species using multi‐latent spatial models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 

van der Wal, J.E.M., Spottiswoode, C.N., Uomini, N.T., Cantor, M., Daura-Jorge, F.G., Afan, A.I., Attwood, M.C., Amphaeris, J., Balasani, F., Begg, C.M., Blair, C.J., Bronstein, J. L., Buanachique, I.O., Cuthill, R.R.T., Das, J., Deb, A., Dixit, T., Dlamini, G.S., Dounias, E., Gedi, I.I., Gruber, M., Hoffmann, L.S., Holzlehner, T., Isack, H.A., Laltaika, E.A., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Lund, J., Machado, A.M.S., Mahadevan, L., Moreno, I.B., Nwaogu, C.J., Pereira, V.L., Pierotti, R., Rucunua, S.A., dos Santos, W.F., Serpa, N., Smith, B.D., Tolkova, I., Tun, T., Valle-Pereira, J.V.S., Wood, B.M., Wrangham, R.W. and Cram, D. L. 2022. Safeguarding human–wildlife cooperation. Conservation Letters. IF: 8.105 

Torney, C.J., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Chevallier, M., Moyer, D.C., Maliti, H.T., Mwita, M., Kohi. E.M. & Hopcraft, G.C. 2019. A comparison of deep learning and citizen science techniques for counting wildlife in aerial survey images. Methods in Ecology & Evolution

Torney, C.J., Dobson, A.P., Borner, F., Lloyd-Jones, D. J., Moyer, D., et al. 2016, Assessing Rotation-Invariant Feature Classification for Automated Wildebeest Population Counts. Plos One 11(5) e0156342 

Lloyd-Jones, D. J. and Briskie, J. V. 2016, Mutual Wattle Ornaments in the South Island Saddleback (Philesturnus carunculatus) Function as Armaments. Ethology 122: 61-71. 

Khwaja, N. and Lloyd-Jones, D. J. 2015. Eurasian blackbird (Turdus merula) nest parasitised by song thrush (T. philomelos). Notornis 62: 41-44.

Lloyd-Jones, D. J. 2014. Ultrasonic harmonics in the calls of rock wren (Xenicus gilviventris). Nortornis 61: 165-169.

Other publications:

Lloyd-Jones, D. J. and Moyer, D. C. 2018, Estimate of 2015 Serengeti wildebeest population and an evaluation of using citizen science counters for the enumeration of wildebeest in aerial images. Technical report, Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), Arusha: Tanzania.

Grossmann, F., D’ambanguine, T., Deffontaines, J., Lloyd-Jones, D.J. 2017, Aerial survey of elephant, other wildlife and human activity in the Niassa National Reserve, Dry Season 2016. Technical Report, Wildlife Conservation Society: New York.