Welcome Samantha Venter

We would like to give a warm welcome to Samantha Venter who joined the Plant Conservation Unit (PCU) as a Research Assistant in February 2016. Her main focus is the development and management of the PCU rePhotoSA citizen science project, which involves repeat photography of southern African landscapes (http://rephotosa.adu.org.za/). The rePhotoSA project is a joint venture between the PCU and the Animal Demography Unit and is focused on getting the public or 'citizen scientists' to contribute to the extensive repeat photographic database housed within the PCU. 

Originally from Johannesburg in Gauteng, Samantha completed her BSc (Hons.) Ecology, Environment & Conservation (Botany) and her MSc. Ecology, Environment & Conservation (Ornithology) at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her research focused on the community dynamics and feeding ecology of birds within an Afromontane Mist Belt Mixed Podocarpus Forest near Nottingham Road in KwaZulu-Natal. On completion of her Masters, Samantha worked as an Environmental Consultant for 2.5 years before seeking out the greener pastures of our country through the WWOOFing (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) network. Below is a selection of pictures from Samantha’s adventures with her husband Zander Venter around South Africa.

Left: Samantha feeding raspberries at The Field Berry Farm, Gauteng. Right: Walking in Hogsback, Eastern Cape. Below: Bird watching with her husband Zander in Mount Camdeboo.

Welcome Sam!