melviha@unisa.ac.za

Ph.D. in Forestry

Haemish's expertise lies in the field of wildlife ecology, with research interests in community ecology. He is particularly interested in intra-guild interactions of mesopredators, predator-prey interactions, population dynamics, and more recently decomposition ecology. Before entering academia, Haemish worked in the private sector managing a large-scale wildlife production unit and wild animal collections in the United Arab Emirates. He also worked as a consultant field zoologist for various environmental consulting firms. Haemish received his MSc from the Centre for Wildlife Mangement at the University of Pretoria, where he studied the behavioral ecology of caracals in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, and its impact on adjacent stock production. He was co-advised during his PhD by Dr. Conway and Dr. M. L. Morrison at TAMU while he investigated predation on Eastern wild turkeys in Texas. He is currently a senior lecturer and Programme Leader of the Nature Conservation Programme of the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of South Africa (UNISA), where he teaches Zoology and Fundamentals of Conservation to Conservation Diploma Students. He serves on the UNISA research ethics, post graduate and management committees and supervises several graduate students. He is also a member of the Southern African Wildlife Management Association and the Zoological Society of South Africa.