Anne Rasa

Olwen Anne Elisabeth Rasa (1940 – 15 November 2020) was a British ethologist, known for her long-duration study of the social behaviour of the dwarf mongoose in Kenya. She had studied aggression among coral reef fish under the pioneering ethologist Konrad Lorenz. Her fieldwork in Kenya's Taru Desert led to a book, Mongoose Watch: A Family Observed, and to a popular German television series, Expedition ins Tierreich. She later studied social behaviour in the yellow mongoose and the sub-social tenebrionid beetle Parastizopus armaticeps.

Rasa had 3 children and 4 grandchildren. She died on 15 November 2020.

In 2011/2012, Rasa worked as a scientific advisor on a film series called Kalahari Trails which was being shot in the Kalahari.

In 2007, OSHANA published the book KALAHARI – Magnificent Desert with pictures and text by Rasa.

Rasa owned the Nature Reserve Kalahari Trails at the southern end of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa, which she bought a few years prior to her retirement. She lived there since December 2000 and offered accommodation and guided walks to everyone interested in the flora and fauna of the Kalahari.

In 1991, she became Associate Professor at the University of Bonn, Germany, where she was teaching ethology (lectures and practicals), too, and continuing her studies on Yellow mongoose and studies on the sub-social tenebrionid beetle Parastizopus armaticeps. Rasa retired from Bonn University at the end of 2000.

From 1986, Rasa was Associate Professor at Pretoria University, South Africa, teaching ethology (lectures and practicals) and starting her studies on Yellow mongoose in the Kalahari Desert.

From 1981, she worked with the University of Bayreuth, Germany, with a Heisenberg-Scholarship to accomplish her field studies on the dwarf mongoose in the Taru Desert, Kenya. She published the results of her studies in the book Mongoose Watch: A Family Observed with a foreword by Konrad Lorenz. He compares the significance of her works with those of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey. In 1984 the book with its results was presented by Bernhard Grzimek in the popular German TV-series Expedition ins Tierreich and was translated into several languages.

From 1975, she worked as a scientific assistant at Marburg University, Germany. She focused on ontogeny of behaviour in the dwarf mongoose and was awarded the Dr. habil. qualification as a professor in 1981.

From 1970, she continued her work at the Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltenspsychologie in Seewiesen under Konrad Lorenz. During this period she started her Dwarf mongoose studies, concentrating on social structure, marking behavior and intra-group aggression.

In 1961 Anne Rasa graduated with Bachelor of Science (Hons.) from the Royal College of Science, Imperial College, London University. Subsequently, she received a NATO-scholarship to investigate the aggression of fish. In 1965 she graduated with Master of Science (M.Sc.) from the University of Hawaii. In 1970 Rasa received her Ph.D. from London University with a Max-Planck-Scholarship on coral reef fish aggression under Konrad Lorenz.