The Indalo Institute

About Us

Research Partners

Our research partners are researchers and practitioners based at other institutions and organisations. They collaborate with us on specific projects, fieldwork and student supervision.

Portrait of Prof Colleen Downs

Prof Colleen T. Downs

University of KwaZulu-Natal

Prof Colleen T. Downs has been a lecturer and researcher at the University of KwaZulu-Natal since 1994. Her research experience covering a range of taxa is vast but has broadly included conservation biology, general biology, and ecophysiology. Her expertise in ornithology and invasion biology has made her a leader in her field, and she is probably the most published woman in Africa. Besides having supervised countless dozens of postgraduate students, she supervised the PhDs and postdocs of Dr Gula and Dr Burnett. She remains the key partner in supporting our research programmes.

Amukena Mungole holding an egret in tall grass

Amukena Mungole

Department of National Parks and Wildlife · African Parks Zambia

Amukena Mungole is an anti-poaching officer with the Zambian Department of National Parks and Wildlife and African Parks Zambia, and he has been a field research assistant with Dr Gula in Liuwa Plain National Park, Zambia, since 2019. He is skilled in bird identification, bird capture techniques, and handling birds for research. He is currently pursuing his BSc in Wildlife Conservation and Natural Resources Management at Livingstone International University through the support of The Indalo Institute.

Portrait of Dr Nasiphi Bitani

Dr Nasiphi Bitani

University of KwaZulu-Natal

Dr Nasiphi Bitani is a zoology lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where her research focuses on the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on bird and mammal communities. Her research experience also includes community ecology in KwaZulu-Natal forests and work on frugivory and seed dispersal. Dr Bitani is a SAFRING-licensed bird ringer (bander) and started the Spotted Ground Thrush project with Dr Gula in 2024.

Siboniso Magoso holding a White Stork

Siboniso Magoso

PhD candidate, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Siboniso Magoso is a PhD student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and is co-supervised by Prof Colleen Downs, Dr Gula, and Dr Mfundo Maseko. His PhD work focuses on avian ecology and community dynamics in landfills. Part of this project involves work with Dr Gula on tracking the movements of White Storks and African Sacred Ibises from landfills in KwaZulu-Natal. For his MSc, Siboniso did research on avian community ecology in mistbelt forests of KwaZulu-Natal, during which time he became a SAFRING-licensed bird ringer.