NRF Rated Researchers

Research Profile

Peter John Taylor

Peter Taylor is a South African citizen. He obtained his BSc (1983) and BSC Honours (1984) degrees from University of Cape Town. His PHD on "Infraspecific systematics of the yellow mongoose (Cynictis penicillata)" was awarded in 1990 (University of Natal). After working for two years as Scientific Assistant to Professor J. A. J Meester at University of Natal, in July 1989, he worked for over 20 years as Curator of Mammals and Acting Director (11 months) at the Durban Natural Science Museum before recently (February 2010) taking up the post of Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Resource Management at University of Venda in the Limpopo Province in the north of South Africa.

His research focuses on the systematics, conservation and pest management of small mammals, including rodents, bats, shrews and small carnivores. He has undertaken many small mammal collecting trips throughout South Africa, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Uganda and Kenya, and curated the Museum's rapidly growing mammal collection of 12,000 specimens, as well as contributing to the Museum's display, education and public service programmes. In February 1994, he co-founded the Bat Interest Group of KwaZulu-Natal (Bats KZN). The group currently numbers some 100 individuals. Its aims are to promote bats, bat conservation and bat research. In 1996, the group was nominated for the “Conservationist of the Year” award by KZN Wildlife. Bats KZN has participated in major exhibitions of bats at the South African National Science Festival in 1999, 2000, and 2003 (winning a third prize in the last instance) and has hosted and collaborated actively with some of the world’s leading bat researchers and conservationists (including M. B. Fenton, M. D. Tuttle, S. Churchill, A. Hutson, S. Goodman and W. Bogdanowicz). In 2007, they published a popular guide on Bats in Roofs (UKZN Press) for householders and pest controllers.

He has authored or co-authored 90 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters, two scientific books and over 20 popular science articles. His books on The smaller mammals of KwaZulu-Natal (1998) and Bats of Southern Africa (2000) (both published by University of Natal Press) have become standard reference works and the latter is now out of print. An updated revision (with accurate distribution maps based on verified museum records) of the latter bat book (co-authored with Prof Ara Monadjem, Dr Woody Cotterill and Dr Corrie Schoeman) is due to be printed in July 2010 published by Wits University Press. He serves on the Editorial Board of the international bat research journal, Acta Chiropterologica, and is an invited member of the IUCN’s Chiroptera Specialist Group and Non-Volant Small Mammal Group. He is a Council member of both the Zoological Society for Southern Africa (ZSSA) (currently President), and the Southern African Society for Systematic Biology (SASSB). Recently he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the International Federation of Mammalogists (IFM).

Peter is an Honorary Lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where he has (mostly on a voluntary basis) taught courses ranging from first year to Honours-level, and involving topics such as Mammalogy, Evolution, Systematics, Cytogenetics, Speciation and Reproduction. He has co-supervised seven successful MSc and four successful PhD studies (most concerned with rodent systematics); four MSc  and four PhD studies are currently being co-supervised. He was awarded visiting researcher fellowships by the Paris Natural History Museum (July 2000 and September to December 2001) and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Natural History Museum (June 2006); in both instances relating to collaborative research on African rodent systematics. He has attended and presented papers at 20 international conferences and workshops, organising or serving on the organising or scientific committees on eight occasions, and being invited to chair sessions on seven occasions. He was an invited Plenary Speaker at the 3rd International Conference on Rodent Biology & Management in Vietnam in September 2006. Peter has acted as External Examiner for numerous postgraduate students at five South African Universities and for PhD candidates at the Paris Natural History Museum and the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar. He has been invited to referee articles for 24 scientific journals.

Current projects include a review of the African rodent Tribe Otomyini; partnerships in two rodent pest management projects to (1) investigate sanitary risks of rodent-borne diseases in four Africa countries (www.nri.org/ratzooman) and (2) investigate and alleviate rodent crop damage to subsistence farmers in southern Africa (www.nri.org/ecorat); and a collaborative study (with the Field Museum, Association Vahatra, University of Antananarivo and UKZN) on the molecular and morphometric systematics of African and Malagasy free-tailed bats (Family Molossidae), aimed at increasing capacity of Malagasy and South African postgraduate students (sponsored by Volkswagen Foundation).

During his brief time so far at University of Venda Peter has initiated projects geared towards the University’s mandates of rural development and poverty alleviation; e.g. 1) investigating the potential of bats as ecological indicators and biocontrol agents in the commercial macadamia agroecosystem in the Levubu valley and 2) investigating the negative impact of rodents on subsistence agriculture (and alternative intervention strategies) in the Vhembe District. Apart from transmission of diseases to humans, rodents can cause losses of >50% of stored grain alone and demonstration of feasible strategies to reduce crop damage by rodents has been shown to meaningfully improve both food security and public health in rural agriculture in Africa. He recently applied to NRF for funding for a large inter-disciplinary project aimed at using small mammals as models for assessing future climate change risks to biodiversity; this project will harness the skills of a team of international and national experts to use both mathematical modelling and empirical field studies of elevational transects in the Soutpansberg Mountains.

Selected Recent References In Accredited Journals (From 2006)

1. Markotter, W., Randles, J., Rupprecht, C. E., Sabeta, C. T., Taylor, P. J., Wandeler, A. I. & Nel, L. H. 2006. Lagos Bat Virus, South Africa. Emerging Infectious Diseases 12(3): 504-506

2. Lamb, J. M., Abdel-Rahman, E. H., Ralph, T. Fenton, M. B.,  Naidoo, A. Richardson, E. J., Jacobs, D. S. Denys, C. &. Taylor, P. J. 2006. Phylogeography of southern and northeastern African populations of Otomops martiensseni (Chiroptera: Molossidae). Durban Museum Novitates 31: 42-53. 

3. Colangelo, Paolo, Granjon, Laurent, Taylor, Peter J. and Corti, Marco. 2007. Evolutionary systematics in African gerbilline rodents of the genus Gerbilliscus: inference from mitochondrial genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 42: 797-806.

4. Rahman Ahmed, E. H. A, Ducroz, J-F., Mitchell, A., Lamb, L., Contrafatto, G., Denys, C., Lecompte, E. & Taylor, P. J. 2008. Phylogeny and historical demography of economically-important rodents of the genus Arvicanthis (Mammalia: Muridae) from the Nile Valley: of mice and men. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 93: 641-655.

5. Taylor, P. J. & Monadjem, A. 2008. Maxillary shape as a diagnostic tool for identifying fruit bats, Epomophorus crypturus and E. wahlbergi (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from museum specimens and in the field. South African Journal of Wildlife Research 38(1): 22-27.

6. Taylor, P. J., Arntzen, L., Hayter, M. Iles, M., Frean, J., & Belmain, S. R. 2008. Understanding and managing sanitary risks due to rodent zoonoses in an African city: beyond the Boston Model. Integrative Zoology 3: 38-50.

7. Lamb, J. M., Ralph, T. M. C., Goodman, S. M., Bogdanowicz, W., Fahr, J.. Gajewska, M., Bates, P. J. J., Eger, J., Benda, P. & Taylor, P. J. 2008. Phylogeography and predicted distribution of African-Arabian and Malagasy populations of giant mastiff bats, Otomops (Chiroptera: Molossidae). Acta Chiropterologica 10(1): 21-40.

8. Abdel-Rahman, E. H., Taylor, P. J,. Contrafatto, G., Lamb, J. M., Bloomer, P,  & Chimimba, C. T. 2009. Geometric craniometric analysis of sexual dimorphism and ontogenetic variation: A case study based on two geographically disparate species, Aethomys ineptus from southern Africa and Arvicanthis niloticus from Sudan (Rodentia: Muridae). Mammalian Biology 74: 361-373.

9. Taylor, P. J., Maree, S., van Sandwyk, J. Kerbis Peterhans, J. C. Stanley, W. T., Verheyen, E., Kaliba, P. Verheyen, W. Kaleme, P. & N. C. Bennett. 2009. Speciation mirrors geomorphology and palaeoclimatic history in African laminate-toothed rats (Muridae: Otomyini) of the Otomys denti and O. lacustris species-complexes in the “Montane Circle” of East Africa. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 96: 913-941.

10. Taylor, P. J., Maree, S., Sandwyk, J., Baxter, R. & Rambau, R. V. 2009. When is a species not a species? Uncoupled phenotypic, karyotypic and genotypic divergence in two species of South African laminate-toothed rats (Murinae: Otomyini). Journal of Zoology (London) 277(4): 317-332.

11. Ratrimomanarivo, Fanja, H., Goodman, S. M, Hoosen, N. Taylor, P. J. & Lamb, J. 2009. Morphological and molecular variation in Mops leucostigma (Chiroptera: Molossidae) of Madagascar and the Comoros: phylogeny, phylogeography and geographic variation. Mitteilungen aus dem Hamburgischen Zoologischen Museum 105: 57-101.

12. Taylor, P. J., Lamb, J. Reddy, D., Naidoo, T. Ratrimomanarivo, F. & Goodman, S. M. 2009. Cryptic lineages of little free-tailed bats, Chaerephon pumilus (Chiroptera: Molossidae) from southern Africa and the western Indian Ocean islands. African Zoology 277: 317-332.

13. Ratrimomanarivo, F. H., Goodman, S. M., Taylor, P. J., Melson, B. & Lamb, J. 2009. Morphological and genetic variation in Mormopterus jugularis (Chiroptera: Molossidae) in different bioclimatic regions of Madagascar with natural history notes. Mammalia 73(2): 110-129.

14. Ratrimomanarivo, F. H., Steven M. Goodman, William T. Stanley, Theshnie Naidoo, Peter J. Taylor, & Jennifer Lamb. 2009. Patterns of geographic and phylogeographic variation in Chaerephon leucogaster (Chiroptera: Molossidae) of Madagascar and the western Indian Ocean islands of Mayotte and Pemba. Acta Chiropterologica 11(1): 25-52.

15. Enders A. C. Jones C. J. P., Taylor, P. J., Carter, A. M. Placentation in the Egyptian slit-faced bat Nycteris thebaica (Chiroptera: Nycteridae). Placenta 30 (9):792-799.

16. Taylor, P. J. & Hamer, M. 2009. Standing on the shoulders of colourful giants: 50 years of zoological research in southern Africa. African Zoology 43(2): 217-231.

17. Hamer, M. & Taylor, P. J. 2009. Trends in zoological research in South Africa between 1980 and 2009. African Zoology 43(2): 232-240.