David Happold
David Christopher Dawber Happold,, in publications often D. C. D. Happold, is a British-Australian mammalogist. His main research interests are the small mammals of Africa and Australia.
Career
David Happold is the son of Frederick Crossfield and his wife Dorothy Vectis Happold, née Halbach. From 1947 to 1955, he attended Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury, where his father was a headmaster from 1928 to 1960. In 1955 - 1957, he spent two years on National Service, and after he obtained his officer's commission, he was posted to the 3rd Battalion of The Kings African Rifles in Kenya. In 1957, he matriculated at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960. In 1960 he went to Canada, where he attended the University of Alberta in Edmonton until 1963; here he conducted field research on the ecology and distribution of mosquitoes near Flatbush and Athabasca. In April 1963, he submitted his PhD thesis entitled Studies on the ecology of mosquitoes in the boreal forest of Alberta.In July 1963 he accepted a position at the University of Khartoum, where he changed his interests to mammalogy. During the three years he spent in Khartoum, he travelled the semi-desert regions of Sudan and studied small mammals. Most of his research included ecological studies of the lesser Egyptian jerboa and the greater Egyptian gerbil.
In April 1966, he moved to the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and began long-term studies on the demography of terrestrial small mammals in the rainforest, on distribution patterns of small mammals in the savanna areas, reproductive strategies of small mammals, and on the problems of species conservation in the national parks. David Happold lived in Nigeria for 12 years until he and his wife Meredith, an Australian zoologist, were forced to leave the country in 1977 by various circumstances. They moved to Australia and David Happold took up a post at the Zoology Department of the Australian National University in Canberra. From January 1977 until his retirement in August 1998, he worked firstly as a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer and finally as Reader in Zoology.
In Australia, Happold and his students worked on many aspects of small mammal ecology in the subalpine and alpine regions of the Kosciuszko National Park, a few kilometres south of Canberra. The studies dealt with demography, reproductive strategies, habitat selection, food preferences, social behaviour, the effects of altitude on many areas of life, and the problems of nature conservation in mountain habitats.
He also continued his research work in Africa. From 1984 to 1985, and from 1993 to 1994, he was a visiting professor at the University of Malawi in Zomba. In collaboration with his wife, he conducted long-term studies on small mammals. This work resulted in many publications in international and local journals. All these publications are available on 'Research Gate'.
In 1983, Happold described the savanna swamp shrew from Nigeria in collaboration with German mammalogist Rainer Hutterer from the Museum Koenig in Bonn.