Dave Allan is one of the most experienced field ornithologists in South Africa, and one of the region’s best-informed and most impassioned bird conservationists. Over a career spanning more than 30 years, he has fronted some of southern Africa’s most comprehensive and influential bird population studies. These have included raptor, crane, stork, ibis and lark surveys in the former Transvaal, bustard and crane work in the Overberg and Karoo, montane raptor and vulture counts in the Lesotho, and waterbird and vulture surveys in KZN and the Eastern Cape. He recently retired from a long-term position as Curator of Birds at the Durban Natural Science Museum. As his long-time friend and mentor, Dave has collaborated with Andrew Jenkins on many projects, including a series of bird distribution and conservation studies in the Lesotho Highlands. He is an active member of the BirdLife South Africa Taita Falcon Survey Team, serves on the BLSA/EWT Birds & Wind Energy Specialist Group, and is a wise and much-valued advisor to AVISENSE.

Grant Benn’s professional career as a GIS consultant started in early 2000, working as a technical and GIS analyst with TerraMare Environmental Data Systems, GIMS (now ESRI South Africa) and GISCOE. In 2005 he started GeoCline Consulting cc, specialising in spatial data and systems development and analysis, and two- and three-dimensional spatial modelling, and working for a wide variety of clients. Grant has authored and co-authored numerous scientific articles and symposia papers on a variety of conservation and GIS-based topics. GeoCline Consulting has provided top-end GIS expertise to AVISENSE since the company started, contributing to multiple commercial studies of avian distribution, movement and collision risk, as well as to academic studies of foraging ecology (Peregrines), and habitat selection and distribution (Taita Falcons). Given the importance of accurate spatial analysis to the outcomes of many avian impact studies, Grant and GeoCline are integral to maintaining AVISENSE’s excellent service offering.

Visit Grant's homepage for more about Geocline Consulting.