We were delighted to run our second Pan African student indaba - which bought together early career researchers working on African bats!  
#AfriPopo2024

Thank you to our AfriPopo Student Indaba sponsors 

Following on from the success of our first AfriPopo Student Indaba back in 2022 we were delighted to host another one.

The AfriPopo Student Indaba (symposium) provides a friendly, inclusive and supportive opportunity for students and early career professionals to network and share their research findings. 

This symposium is a great opportunity for students and postdoctoral researchers working across mainland Africa, and the surrounding islands, to showcase their work and network with others in the bat research and conservation space.   

The Indaba is organised by students for students (meet the committee below!)  and took place on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 November 2024. 

Meet the #AfriPopo2024 Organising Committee 

We were excited to have two keynote speakers joining us for AfriPopo Indaba 2024:

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Monday Veli Mdluli, PhD student, University of the Free State, South Africa

Monday Veli Mdluli is a PhD student currently enrolled in the University of the Free State, QwaQwa Campus. His research focuses on how climate change, anthropogenic activities and even perceptions of people in the Maloti Drakensberg grassland affect the local bat communities. His current work is currently overseen by the Afromontane Research Unit and the Zoology and Entomology department of the University of the Free State, under the supervision of Professors Peter Taylor and Ara Monadjem along with Dr. Bredenhand and Dr. Rakotoarivelo. His research was recognised by the Bat Conservation International procuring the BCI award in 2022. His research has also won best presentation at multiple conferences such as the 5th Global Change Conference and the 25th ZSSA conference. In 2018, Monday Mdluli graduated from the University of Eswatini with an MSc. in Conservation Ecology. His previous work assessed the impacts of vegetation cover on small mammals in grassland areas. Mdluli is a wildlife conservation enthusiast and his contributions to conservation include conducting bat awareness classes for communities and local schools in QwaQwa. He has also written a bat book aimed at teaching local people about the importance of the bats of QwaQwa with the book entitled “QwaQwa’s Heroes After Sunset”. He currently has three peer-reviewed scholarly articles and hopes to start a bat NGO in Eswatini.​

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Dr Paul Webala, Senior Lecturer, Maasai Mara University, Kenya

Paul Webala, an award-winning regional expert on small mammals, particularly bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera), has vast fieldwork experience. One of his primary interests, which he pursues in collaboration with scientists worldwide, is the processes that drive the rarity and abundance of mammals in both natural and human-dominated landscapes. This research addresses behavioural, ecological, and systematic/taxonomic questions  and is fundamental to his work advocating bat conservation in Africa. He has published extensively in reputable international peer-reviewed journals; he is a National Geographic Explorer (https://explorers.nationalgeographic.org/directory/paul-w-webala), former co-chair of Bat Conservation Africa, and science advisor to Bat Conservation International (USA); and, with colleagues, he has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for science, capacity building, and biodiversity conservation projects in Africa. He is also a member of the Bat Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.​

The programme: