Rebecca Muller

MSc Conservation Biology (Cape Town)

Rebecca has interests in both ecology and applied conservation biology. In 2019 she completed her MSc in Conservation Biology at the University of Cape Town. Her minor dissertation looked at the effects of urbanization on the productivity and breeding success of African Crowned Eagles in the urban-rural interface in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. She then spent two years as a research assistant on various projects including one focused on the effects of giraffe on vegetation structure with Prof Edmund February; and the Black Sparrowhawk project run by A/Prof Arjun Amar at the FitzPatrick Institute.

Rebecca has been interested in developing her skills with regards to climate change impacts for some time. This has led her to develop a PhD with A/Prof Arjun Amar and Dr. Chima Nwaogu at UCT and Prof Barbara Helm at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Rebecca’s PhD will focus on utilizing a historical database of nest record cards collected between 1910-1999 to investigate how climate change has affected the annual cycles of birds in southern Africa.

Publications:

Muller, R., Amar, A., Sumasgutner, P., McPherson, S.C. & Downs, C.T. 2020. Urbanization is associated with increased breeding rate, but decreased breeding success, in an urban population of near-threatened African Crowned Eagles. The Condor. 122:1–11. https://doi.org/10.1093/condor/duaa024