EARG Member Profile
Miss Natasha Constant, B.Sc (Hons) Zoology, MRes Conservation and Biodiversity
(email at n.l.constant@durham.ac.uk)
My PhD research integrates biological and social methods to examine the population ecology of the South African Leopard (Panthera pardus), the extent and management of human-leopard conflict resulting from livestock and game attacks and the cultural construction of human environmental perceptions towards leopards and their conservation. My work is conducted in the Blouberg Mountain Range in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, where I work with a variety of land use owners from protected area managers, commercial game and cattle farmers and communal farmers. I utilise camera trapping techniques to estimate leopard population density, factors shaping spatial distribution (habitat and landscape variables, prey, carnivore and human occupancy rates) and activity patterns. Habitat modelling and GIS mapping methods are employed to assess the relationship between predation risk, topographical features and management initiatives associated with game and livestock attacks. Finally, I adopt an anthropological approach to discuss how perceptions towards leopard conservation have been shaped by historical events (establishment of protected areas), current relationships between local communities and protected areas, the extent, management and symbolism underlying human-leopard conflict.
Research Groups
Research Interests
- Anthropology in Development
- Community based natural resource management
- Conservation Biology
- Large Carnivore Ecology and Conservation
- Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Publications
Journal papers: academic
- Constant, N Santorelli, L.A, Lope, J.F.S & Hughes, W.O.H (2012). The effects of genotype, caste, and age on foraging performance in leaf-cutting ants. Behavioral Ecology 23(6): 1276.
- Davison, A, Constant, N Tanna, H, Muuray, J & Clarke, B (2009). Coil and shape in Partula suturalis: the rule of form revisited. Heredity 103(3): 268.