Professor Anton Pauw

Research Interests

The topic of my research is biological diversity, how it originates and how it is assembled into ecological communities. To answer these questions, I study plant–pollinator interactions in the southwestern Cape, with a focus on sunbirds, long-proboscid flies, oil-collecting bees and rodents. My work has shown that many of these pollinators and their dependent plants are threatened by human activity, but that pollination restoration can be successful. I am a founding member of Ingcungcu Sunbird Restoration, a not-for-profit organization that aims to reconnect plants, birds and people by planting nectar gardens on school grounds in Cape Town. The gardens are “filling stations” for sunbirds and learning spaces for youth and their communities.