Member since 2009.
I am the Deputy Executive Director of Conservation Science at Panthera, as well as Panthera’s Leopard Program Director. I completed my doctorate in 2009 on the conservation biology of a nominally protected leopard population in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I was instrumental in drafting new legislation regulating trophy hunting of leopards in South Africa, and revised statutory protocols for managing damage-causing animals outside protected areas. I have continued to work with African governments to implement best practices for leopard, lion, and cheetah management across the continent. I have also overseen numerous community programs to alleviate human-carnivore conflict. In addition to my studies in Africa, I have worked extensively in the Middle East on Persian and Arabian leopards, as well as Asiatic cheetah. I also helped to set up conservation projects on jaguars in Brazil, snow leopards in Mongolia, and small cat species all over the world. In my capacity as a field researcher, I have developed an adept knowledge of the various capture and immobilization techniques used on large carnivores. I have also worked broadly with the different sampling methods used to estimate carnivore abundance. I have contributed towards numerous scientific and popular articles on carnivore ecology and conservation, and supervised several graduate students working on cats.