Ross Cowlin: Ross graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2005. He completed an honours degree the following year, his research primarily focussing on cryptic speciation in the Onychophora. His biological interests are, however, broad and he has worked with a wide variety of organisms. His love of the outdoors – and mountains in particular – led to his getting involved in the mountain guiding industry in 2000. He has explored many wilderness areas, both in Africa and abroad and enjoys indulging his interest in photography and travel. The duality of his professional interests and his experiences on various film projects sparked the idea of Evolve – which he started in early 2009.

Mammals

Tali Hoffman: Tali graduated from with a BSc (Hons) in Zoology in 2006. She is currently working towards a PhD at the University of Cape Town. Her focus is on the spatial ecology of the Cape Peninsula baboon troops, with the aim of her work being the improved management and conservation of this troubled population. Tali has worked in an advisory role with several international film crews, as well as playing an active role in front of the camera – presenting a documentary series about conservation efforts in the Western Cape. Tali is also a keen wildlife photographer and has travelled widely in Africa and abroad.

Wendy Wilson: Wendy holds degrees in both pharmacology and biology - both from the University of Cape Town. Although she has worked extensively in both these fields, Wendy’s passion has always been for wildlife. She has recently completed her MSc thesis, which investigated temperature regulation in the Cape ground squirrel. She has also worked extensively with the charismatic meerkats and has considerable experience in habituating meerkat groups.

Low de Vries: Low received his BSc Zoology degree in 2007 from the University of Pretoria. During this time he researched circadian rhythms in Ansell’s mole-rat. Currently, he is busy with his MSc - researching the general ecology of three mammalian myrmecophages in South Africa (aardwolf, aardvark and bat-eared fox) with special reference to diet, home range and interactions between the species. He has extensive field work experience with vertebrates - working with small mammals, catching and tracking carnivores and even doing surveys of bird species in under-studied African countries. Low has a passion for wildlife photography, which is admirably facilitated by his current fieldwork.

Kath Potgieter: Kath completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Cape Town in 2004. More recently, Kath finished her MSc thesis on pup provisioning and pack formation in the endangered African wild dog (with UCT and the Endangered Wildlife Trust). Kath has lived and worked in the African bush for the past five years, where her passion for carnivore – and specifically wild dog – conservation has grown into an obsession. Her bush life has provided her with a variety of valuable skills – from reversing Landrovers at high-speed to get away from charging elephants, to removing sleeping pythons from her bed. Her latest work has involved travelling between various national parks in order to raise awareness about carnivore conservation. Kath is also a keen surfer, climber, hiker, photographer and adventurer.

Birds

Rita Covas: Rita did her undergraduate studies at the University of Lisbon, having done a graduation dissertation on the biogeography of Mediterranean birds at the CNRS in Montpellier. After graduating, she spent some time working on the seabird communities of São Tomé and Príncipe in the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa. She moved to Cape Town in 1998 to investigate cooperative breeding in sociable weavers, which was the focus of her PhD thesis. The central themes of her research are the evolution of kin sociality and life-histories in birds and the relationship between the two. She is currently based at the FitzPatrick Institute at UCT.

Reptiles

Luke Verburgt: Luke obtained his MSc (Zoology) degree from the University of Pretoria in 2007. His academic focus has been on the evolution of communication, looking at how female preference shapes male signals. However, he has a very wide range of interests and has published on such diverse topics such as tail autonomy in lizards, feeding ecology in sunbirds and vigilance behaviour in ground squirrels. He is currently completing his PhD thesis, also on communication systems. Luke has over 25 years of experience dealing with reptiles in both wild and captive situation and is involved in performing herpetofauna biodiversity surveys for various parks and reserves.

Insects

Mike Picker: Mike obtained his PhD at the University of Witwatersrand in 1982. His research centres on various aspects of insect ecology, especially in the succulent Karoo of the Western Cape. Mike has a huge amount of experience in the field and even discovered a new order of insects in 2002 (Mantophasmatodea - or heelwalkers). He is widely published, but is perhaps best known as the senior author of the comprehensive “Field Guide to Insects of South Africa". Recently, Mike has been involved in consulting for various environmental impact assessments and film projects. He currently holds a position as a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town and heads up the Entomology Research Group.

Jonathan Colville: Jonathan did his zoology honours on insect biocontrol and effects of disturbance on pollinator communities in 2000 (University of Cape Town). He has recently submitted his PhD thesis and hopes to receive his doctorate later this year. His thesis focused on explaining insect distribution patterns in South Africa. Jonathan has extensive natural history knowledge of insects, reptiles, small mammals and plants and has been involved in several major film projects (BBC Wildlife, Africa Wildlife Films, NHK), as well as innumerable smaller film and commercial enterprises. He is currently involved in various environmental impact assessments.

Freshwater

Jenny Day: Jenny is well-known in biological circles and has taught in the Zoology Department of University of Cape Town since 1971. Although Jenny’s research is currently centred on human-altered aquatic systems and related conservation issues, her interests are very much broader than this and include many aspects of freshwater biology. Jenny is widely published and cited – and she co-authored (with Brian Davies) the award-winning “Vanishing Waters”. Her research has taken her all over the world, most recently to Australia and the Centre for Wetlands in Florida, USA. Jenny is currently an associate professor at the University of Cape Town and is the director of the Freshwater Research Unit (FRU).

Vere Ross-Gillespie: Vere completed his honours degree in zoology (UCT) in 2007. From there he moved into the field of freshwater consulting (Freshwater Consulting Group), where he was involved in numerous specialist freshwater studies for environmental impact assessments, freshwater monitoring, scoping reports – as well as projects commissioned by the Water Research Commission of South Africa. Vere is currently working on his masters, his research focused on assessing the role of temperature on the life history cues of aquatic insects occurring in several streams within the Western Cape. He has travelled widely in southern Africa and has extensive field work experience. He is passionate about wildlife photography and has worked with several film crews – both on set and in the field.

Marine

Steve Benjamin: Steven Benjamin obtained his BSc (Zoology) at the University of Cape Town in 2005 and his honours in Ichthyology from Rhodes University in 2006. He then moved into the aquaculture industry where he was part of the managing team at Espadon Marine, who pioneered the production of kob (Argyrosomus japonicus) in southern Africa. In 2008 he followed his passion for the underwater world and took a position with a leading underwater filming logistics and expedition company. Here he was able to augment his already substantial experience of marine environments and worked with large marine animals ranging from Humpback whales to great white sharks in many unique locations around Africa. Steve has worked on several major film productions. He is currently based in Cape Town exploring the underwater wonders of South Africa's mother city.

Botany

Sue-Ré Harris: Sue-Ré graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2005 with a BSc in Botany and went on to complete her honours degree in plant physiology and ecology the following year. Part of her research was done at Oxford University, where she was subsequently employed under Dr. Haruko Okamoto in the photobiology laboratories. Here she assisted in investigations into the effects of electromagnetic fields on plant growth. More recently, Sue-Ré has worked at the KwaZulu Natal Wildlife head office and was involved in a variety of projects – both in the field and in the laboratory. Sue-Ré’s love for plants has taken her as far afield as Indonesia and she enjoys cultivating her own varieties of organic food plants.