Xolani Mabaso

Xolani was born and raised in the advancing townships of KwaZulu Natal. Having been confined to a small area during much of his childhood and high school, he was fascinated by the natural things and animals which no longer occur in his community. He has been an active volunteer in the annual census of the endemic parrot of South Africa, the Cape Parrot in the eastern Kokstad area. He obtained both his BSc and BSc Hons from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2016 and 2017 respectively. His passion for ecology and nature conservation lead him to come knocking at UCT. In his undergraduate degree he dealt mostly with how efficient some native frugivorous birds and a bat species (Wahlberg’s epauletted fruit bat) are at dispersing native as well as invasive fleshy fruits in South Africa. Xolani hopes to make a positive contribution in African nature conservation and with African large mammals. In his spare time, he takes it upon himself to visit the fitness centre, answer people’s questions on Yahoo and Quora and socialize with friends and family.

Thesis
Under the skin of a culture: perceptions of fake leopard skin alternatives in the Shembe Baptist Church (Supervisor: Justin O'Riain)