Carla du Toit

Carla du Toit is a final year PhD student at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town. For her doctoral thesis, she is studying the sensory ecology of ibises and other probe foraging birds and how this relates to their foraging behaviour and beak morphology. Her project also encapsulates a paleontological aspect, as she seeks to understand when and how the unique avian sense of remote-touch evolved in modern birds millions of years ago. She has gone from deserts to wetlands, having previously worked on sociable weavers in the Kalahari, looking at how their colonies affect the soil and plants beneath their nesting trees. Carla has been a birder since the age of six, and her love from birds evolved from a childhood love of their predecessors; the dinosaurs. She loves game drives, nature photography & baking, is an avid pc gamer and dog lover, and hopes to continue her career in ornithology doing research and teaching others.