Pierre Pistorius

Pierre completed his PhD at the University of Pretoria in 2001. He then spent a year doing post-doctoral research on geese at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) in Trondheim. He followed this up with two years on Aldabra Atoll, employed by the Seychelles Islands Foundation, and another year at the Falkland Islands contracted through Falklands Conservation. Since late 2009, Pierre has been based at the Nelson Mandela University where he is now a Full Professor in the Department of Zoology and where he heads the Marine Apex Predator Research Unit.

Pierre’s primary interests relate to population and behavioural ecology of seabirds and other marine predators and their conservation in the face of climate and anthropogenic changes. He is also interested in trophodynamics and the use of marine predators as indicators of the state of the marine environment and their potential use in ecosystem based management.