Kudzanai Dhliwayo
- Project name: Current status, breeding ecology and threats of vultures in the South-East Lowveld.
- Project site: Gonarezhou National Park
- EDGE species: Lappet-faced vulture, Torgos tracheliotos
- Active: 2020 - ongoing
Biography
Alongside her PhD at the University of KwaZulu Natal, Kudzanai has been employed as the assistant curator in the ornithology department at the Natural History Museum in Zimbabwe since 2015.
Kudzanai hopes that the Fellowship will help her gain the confidence she needs to be able to speak in front of audiences and be a voice for the vultures. She would like to gain additional knowledge and skills which will enable her to become a better ecologist, as well as additional training in GIS and statistics.
EDGE Project
Kudzanai’s project aims to understand the status, causes of decline and improve conservation awareness on vultures among communities surrounding the Gonarezhou National Park.
Her objectives are to:
- Establish a multi-year monitoring program for the breeding population of the lappet-faced vulture in Gonarezhou National Park by end of the project;
- Map the distribution of lappet-faced vulture nests in Gonarezhou National Park;
- Identify factors influencing breeding site selection by lappet-faced vultures in Gonarezhou National Park by 2021;
- Assess the breeding success of 10 breeding pairs of lappet-faced vultures in Gonarezhou National Park by the end of project;
- Understand the attitude, perceptions, knowledge and cultural uses of vultures to communities living adjacent to Gonarezhou National Park by 2021.
