During October 23 and November 18, Dr. David Westcott of Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) came to visit XTBG at the invitation of Prof. Chen Jin, director of the Garden. His visit was for collaborative research on seed dispersal. While his staying at the Garden, training on bird remote sensing monitoring techniques was carried out. Scientific personnel and postgraduate students of the research group of plant-animal interaction took part in the training.

  Dr. David Westcott delivered two lectures titled “Estimation of complete seed shadows in Australia’s tropical rainforest” and “Threats to landscape processes: ecology and conservation in a changing tropical Australia”. For further cooperation on biodiversity conservation, Dr. David Westcott had a discussion with Prof. Chen Jin and related scientific personnel.

  Dr. David Westcott is an ecologist and behavioral ecologist. He has spent his research career on birds, almost entirely in the tropics. He is working on the communication systems in rainforest birds, on seed dispersal and frugivory questions.

David Westcott is a member of the editorial board of Biotropica .He has published 40-odds peer-reviewed papers on scientific journals.