2022 WCN Scholars - Woodland Park Zoo
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2022 WCN Scholars
This is the sixteenth award cycle of the WCN Scholarship. To date, we have
awarded 165 standard-track scholarships and 19 veterinary-track scholarships
(174 total) across 46 countries.
Caroline Nkamunu Patita (Kenya) - Pat J. Miller Scholarship
Caroline is planning to use her scholarship to pursue an MPhil in
Conservation Leadership at the University of Cambridge. She is a Masaai
community leader, and she has already played a key role in creating
innovative programs to reduce and mitigate human-wildlife conflict, to
support resilient co-existence, and to combat climate change. After
earning her degree, Caroline's goal is to create a network of Indigenous
communities to build capacity to access resources and technical support
to improve community-based conservation, livelihoods, and biodiversity
protection through new financing models, such as carbon credits. She
intends to frame her work around the conservation of giraffe, collecting
data to inform the giraffe national conservation strategy. She firmly
believes that sharing incentives with communities will lead to increasing
land under conservation and in turn increase giraffe population and
slowing the rate of extinction. Nominated by Dr. Paula Kahumbu of
WildlifeDirect (Whitley Award recipient).
Devavrat Pawar (India) - WCN Scholarship
Devavrat will use his scholarship to complete his PhD at the University of
Wageningen in the Netherlands, which he began in 2020. With a particular
focus on tigers, Devavrat's research investigates the mechanisms that
enable ungulates and large carnivores to successfully utilize resources
within habitats that have been disturbed by humans. Ultimately, this
knowledge will help us better understand co-adaptation of humans and
large mammals, refine wildlife estimation methodologies, highlight the
importance of communities in wildlife conservation, and contribute to
strategic conservation planning. In the longer term, Devavrat hopes to
contribute to building conservation programs that help reconcile goals of
wildlife conservation and sustainable development. He plans to focus his
work in India’s human-dominated landscapes in the Terai (the foothills of
the Himalayas) and beyond, where several million people co-occur with or
live in proximity to wildlife. Nominated by Dr. Pranav Chanchani of WWF-
India.
Esther Nosazeogie (Nigeria) - WCN Scholarship
Esther is planning to use her scholarship to undertake a PhD at
Stony Brook University. Esther has been the volunteer
communications manager at SMACON-Africa (Small Mammal
Conservation Organization, who joined WCN at the Fall 2021 Virtual
Expo) and is currently a research officer at the Nigerian Institute for
Oceanography and Marine Research. For her doctoral studies, she
intends to study the feeding ecology of seabirds in the coastal and
offshore waters in Nigeria. She will then use this data to determine
priority sites for at-sea conservation of seabirds, especially the
endangered Cape Gannet, as well as to contribute to the sustainable
management of local fisheries. She hopes to engage local fishers as
citizen scientists to collect data on Nigerian seabirds - data for
which has not been updated since the 1970s. Her goal is to work
with local coastal communities, policymakers, conservation non-
profits like BirdLife to develop the first-ever action plan for the
conservation of coastal/marine birds in Nigeria, especially those
species that are endangered. Nominated by Dr. Iroro Tanshi of the
University of Benin (Whitley Award winner).
Francis Lopeyok Charles Lenantiri (Kenya) - Handsel Scholarship
Francis plans to use his scholarship to pursue a master's degree at Kenyatta
University, focusing on the influence of community-based conservation on
community empowerment and using the community conservancies of northern
Kenya as case studies. He was born and raised in the Lekurruki community
conservancy in northern Kenya and wants to work to drive conservation
forward as his community's key economy and livelihood practice. After
completing his degree, Francis plans to continue to work for the Northern
Rangelands Trust to spearhead water programs across communities in northern
and eastern Kenya, with a focus on water for people, livestock, and wildlife,
especially the northern black rhino and elephant. His ultiamte goals will be to
develop functioning water infrastructure across member conservancies for
schools, clinics, villages, livestock, and wildlife, and to have functioning
conservancy water governance. Nominated by Dr. Kieran Avery of the Northern
Rangelands Trust (Tusk-supported conservationist).
Guadalupe Verta (Argentina) - Plum Foundation Scholarship
Guadalupe will use her scholarship to pursue a PhD at the University of
California, Berkeley, focusing on developing approaches that integrate
biological and social science disciplines to answer questions related to human-
wildlife coexistence and to the reduction of human impacts on ecosystems,
such as resource extraction, introduction of new species, and climate change. In
particular, she plans to explore the impact of fences on ungulate movement and
landscape connectivity, using ecological and social science tools for the
conservation of large mammals on private lands - which is especially critical in
Patagonia, where the vast majority of the land is privately owned - and
informing management decisions with interdisciplinary science. She will focus
her research on the Andean cat, southern viscacha, and cougar, though her
work will impact many wildlife species across Patagonia. Nominated by Dr.
Andres Novaro of WCS Argentina.
Guilherme Alvarenga (Brazil) - Sidney Byers Scholarship
Guilherme will use his scholarship towards the completion of his doctoral
degree at the University of Oxford. He is working to develop the first
empirical landscape assessment of jaguar population connectivity across
the entire geographical range of the species, with the goals of a)
producing a large-scale analysis of jaguar habitat use throughout the
species’ distribution, determining what regions are and will be impacted
by anthropogenic activities, and b) at a local scale, characterizing
human-carnivore interactions and developing strategies to support the
implementation of ecological corridors for jaguars in partnership with
local communities. He expects his PhD outcomes to drive political and
field-based conservation actions, and he aims to participate actively in
those, while also ensuring that local communities continue to have a
voice. Nominated by Dr. Carlos Durigan of WCS Brazil.
WORK THAT FRO
Kevin Lunzalu (Kenya) - Sidney Byers Scholarship
Kevin will use his scholarship to complete his master's in Coastal Science & Policy at
UC Santa Cruz. His research is centered on the interlink between marine pollution
and sea turtle hatchling populations along the Kenyan Coast. He is analyzing the
impact of marine plastics on the nesting percentage of three sea turtle species that
have been documented to nest on Diani Beach, a popular tourist destination in
Kenya: green sea turtles, hawksbill sea turtles, and olive ridley sea turtles. Recent
studies point towards the fact that eggs may represent the most vulnerable stage
for sea turtles since their survival is dependent on several external environmental
factors, and increased accumulation of microplastics in nesting sites could
significantly reduce hatching success. After completing his degree, Kevin plans to
work with WCS, the Kwale County government, beach management units, tourism
companies, hoteliers, and local communities on a long-term project to safeguard in-
situ nesting sites from microplastics, marine debris, and other development-related
stressors. Nominated by Dr. Nyawira Muthiga, the director of WCS Kenya's Marine
Program.
Lucas Mendes Barreto (Brazil) - WCN Scholarship
Lucas plans to use his scholarship to pursue a PhD at the
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil, focusing on
conservation of the giant armadillo in the Atlantic Forest in the
Parque Estadual do Rio Doce, Minas Gerais, Brazil. He plans to
examine strategies to maintain viable populations and meta
populations and to evaluate the consequences of isolation and
fragmentation of rare, large mammals that occur at low density,
using the giant armadillo as a case study. In the longer term,
Lucas' goal is to implement an extensive ecological corridor, in
partnership with local communities, between the strips of habitat
fragments of the Atlantic Forest to increase the carrying capacity
and ensure a viable population of giant armadillos and other
wildlife. Nominated by Dr. Arnaud Desbiez of the Wild Animal
Conservation Institute (Whitley Award recipient).
María Elena Carbajal (Peru) - WCN-WCS Joint Scholarship
María Elena will use her scholarship to complete her master's in sociology at
the University of Barcelona. Her thesis project focuses on analyzing the social
and cultural habits that lead people to buy and sell wild animals or their body
parts, with a particular focus on Andean bears and jaguars. Through
qualitative interviews and ethnographic research in Peru's primary markets
and hotspots of sale, she will identify the main demand trends and propose
social, communicative and legal strategies to reduce them. In addition to
generating scientific data, her goal is to produce and documentary and
accompanying website to reach and wider audience and encourage citizens
themselves to contribute to reducing this crime. Her longer term goal is to
understand the social dynamics behind the main environmental crises and
illegal activities in order to work to modify behaviors. Nominated by Dr.
Mariana Montoya of WCS Peru.
Muhammad Asif (Pakistan) - Sidney Byers Scholarship
Asif will be using his scholarship to pursue a master's in statistical ecology at
University of St Andrews, focusing his research on snow leopard population
and conflict dynamics, with an aim to apply his knowledge to snow leopard
conservation in his hometown of Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan through the Snow
Leopard Trust's Pakistan Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program.
Pakistan itself has a dearth of conservation scientists, and without reliable data
on wildlife species, conservation is ineffective. This degree will allow Asif to
bridge the gap in his own knowledge between biology and statistics and apply
these skills to wildlife conservation in his home country, where it is sorely
needed. Following his degree, he plans to conduct robust population estimates
in his home region and to work with local communities on alternative livelihood
opportunities so there is less reliance on livestock for income generation.
Nominated by Dr. Charudutt Mishra of the International Snow Leopard Trust
(Whitley Award recipient).
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Nelson Mwangi Gathuku (Kenya) - Sidney Byers Scholarship
Nelson will be using his scholarship to complete his PhD at
Colorado State University. The focus of his dissertation is the
drivers of elephant space use in a changing landscape - he is
looking at what factors influence this (environmental, elephant
herd structure, and human), with the goal being to use that data
to inform landscape planning, mitigate human-elephant conflict,
and ensure human-elephant coexistence across a changing
landscape in Kenya and a broader Africa. After finishing his
doctoral program, Nelson plans to continue working with Save
the Elephants, using the findings from his degree to implement
the protection of key corridors and elephant use areas across the
ecosystem in cooperation with local governments and
communities. Nominated by Frank Pope of Save the Elephants.
Pallabi Chakraborty (India) - WCN Scholarship
Pallabi is planning to use her scholarship to pursue a PhD at the University
of Florida, focusing on understanding ecological and anthropogenic
drivers of human–elephant conflict in the Kodagu landscape of Karnataka,
India, with the goal of ultimately reducing the negative impacts of conflict
on both local communities and elephants. She plans to continue working in
this landscape after the completion of her degree, doing community-based
conservation to mitigate human-wildlife conflict. Her aim to to conduct
conservation education, training, and engagement activities for village
leaders, coffee and tea estate workers, farmers, school teachers, women,
school children, and front-line forest staff. She also hopes to be able to
offer mental health counseling services to those who have had traumatic
and stressful encounters with elephants, in order to help them recover.
Nominated by Dr. Purnima Barman of Aaranyak (Whitley Award recipient).
Prince Pascal Agro (Ghana) - Sidney Byers Scholarship
Pascal is planning to use his scholarship to pursue his PhD at Kwame
Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He plans to focus his
dissertation on population dynamics and the use of local conservation
agreements to conserve populations and habitats of two pangolin species,
the white-bellied pangolin and the black-bellied pangolin, in the Asukese
Forest in Ghana. Pascal has already started his own NGO, Alliance for
Pangolin Conservation, Ghana, and he plans to use the results of his PhD
to engage and encourage forest fringe communities to collaboratively
structure and adopt local conservation agreements (bylaws) to address
wildlife-related misconducts at the community level, and to work with
national and local wildlife authorities to develop and implement an action
plan for the species. Nominated by Prof. Edward Debrah Wiafe, PhD, of
the University of Environment and Sustainable Development in Ghana.
Rochelle Mphetlhe (Botswana) - Sidney Byers Scholarship
Rochelle will be using her scholarship to complete her master's program at the
University of Cape Town. Her research aims to quantify the changes in
abundance of raptor species in northern Botswana in recent years, with a
particular focus on vultures, which are the most endangered of all raptor species
in Botswana. Threats to raptor species include scavenging on poison-laced
carcasses - both from farmers who poison carcasses of livestock they have lost
to predators, and from poachers who poison carcasses of species such as
elephants, to stop raptors from alerting wildlife authorities to their illegal
activities. Rochelle's goals are to continue filling gaps in data and knowledge
related to raptor conservation, teach communities about the value of raptors,
and to work with farmers on non-lethal methods of dealing with problematic
predators. Nominated by Dr. Glyn Maude of Kalahari Research & Conservation
Botswana (Rufford Foundation funding recipient).
Saliza Awang Bono (Malaysia) - Plum Foundation Scholarship
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Saliza will use her Scholarship to complete her doctoral degree at the
University of Kyoto. Her research focuses on the acoustic ecology of small
cetaceans - specifically the endangered Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin and
Irrawaddy dolphin - in northwest Peninsular Malaysia in relation to
environmental and anthropogenic pressures. Saliza plans to return to MareCet
after completing her PhD to develop a comprehensive conservation-based
bioacoustics program, which will investigate and explore how manmade noise
impacts marine animals. This information can then be used to address
bycatch issues and better protect these species. Saliza's goal is to have noise
pollution recognized by the Malaysian government in the coming years as a
threat to marine mammals, and to have that drive policy change around
boating guidelines. She also plans to incorporate bioacoustic programming
into MareCet's educational tours, giving more people exposure to this topic.
Nominated by Dr. Louisa Ponnampalam of MareCet.
Samuel Njuki Mahiga (Kenya) - WCN Scholarship
Njuki will be using his scholarship to pursue a doctoral degree at the
University of Nairobi, focusing on the seasonal dynamics in feeding and
ranging ecology of the critically endangered mountain bongo. After
completing his PhD, he plans to continue working with the Mount Kenya
Wildlife Conservancy to enhance community awareness and empowerment
programs by collaborating with community forest associations to develop
nature-based socioeconomic livelihood programs, like bee farming, fish
farming and ecotourism. Njuki also plans to continue running school
outreach project to inspire and train the next generation of wildlife
conservationists by providing the opportunity for young people to
participate in activities to learn about protecting mountain bongos and
other wildlife. Nominated by Dr. Robert Aruho of the Mount Kenya Wildlife
Conservancy.
Samundra Ambuhang Subba (Nepal) - Pat. J. Miller Scholarship
Samundra plans to use his scholarship towards a doctoral program at
the University of Newcastle, with a focus on large carnivore ecology -
specifically, the snow leopard, wolf, and lynx species in the western
Himalayas - and how these species a) interact with local communities
and b) are impacted by climate change. In the longer term, his goal is to
continue working in the conflict-prone and climate refuge hotspots of
the western Himalayan landscape, targeting highly exposed Indigenous/
marginalized communities. He hopes to restore these crucial habitats by
implementing early warning prevention systems, awareness programs,
predator-proof corrals, and introducing sustainable finance and livestock
insurance mechanisms. He also has ambitious plans to bring in cutting-
edge modern technologies like custom-built drones to facilitate wildlife
monitoring and conservation activities. Nominated by Dr. Ghana S.
Gurung of WWF Nepal.
Singira Parsais (Tanzania) - WCN Scholarship
Singira plans to use his scholarship to pursue his master's degree at the Nelson
Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, focusing his thesis on
assessing the population status and habitat use of African wild dogs in Selous
Game Reserve. Selous holds a significant population of the species; however, the
most recent study was conducted thirty years ago, and there has been no recent
update on the species’ population status and habitat use in the ecosystem since
then. Current data is essential to informing effective conservation of the
population - without it, wild dog populations may be led into extinction without
management awareness. After completing his degree, Singira plans to continue
working with the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority as head ecologist for
Selous, using the results of his master's degree to better manage wild dogs and
other wildlife, both in Selous and elsewhere in Tanzania. Nominated by Dr. Amy
Dickman, co-CEO of Lion Landscapes.
Sinomar Ferreira da Fonseca, Junior (Brazil) - WCN Scholarship
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Sinomar will use his scholarship to complete his PhD at the University of Florida.
He is focusing on developing strategies to mobilize Indigenous people to
confront infrastructure projects in the Amazon and the associated need for free,
prior and informed consent (FPIC). In the Brazilian Amazon, Indigenous people
have seen their lands and cultures jeopardized for infrastructure projects that
have moved forward without FPIC. The result is the persistence of social
inequalities and governance decisions that threaten their territory and culture.
After finishing his PhD, Sinomar plans to pursue a participatory evaluation of
conservation actions with the local Parintintin people, to better address their
conservation needs, including income generation through tourism, engaging
local aldeijas (villages), and expanding agroforesty system and biodiversity
monitoring. His work will focus on the yellow-spotted river turtle and red-
rumped agouti, which are considered both protein sources and income sources.
Both species are declining in areas surrounding the Parintintin aldeias.
Nominated by Dr. Ricardo Assis Mello of WWF Brazil.
Sophia Jingo (Uganda) - WCN Scholarship
Sophia will use her scholarship to complete her master's degree at Makerere
University. She is focusing on understanding poacher decision making and the
impact of community-based intervention on human-wildlife interaction around
Murchison Falls National Park. Subsistence poaching is the main type of
poaching in this landscape, carried out with locally available materials such as
spears, wheel traps, snares and pitfall traps. Though set to catch herbivores,
snares are indiscriminate, and other species, often lions, can be trapped and
killed. After completing her degree, Sophia plans to work with key partners
such as the Uganda Wildlife Authority, National Geographic, and the European
Union to formulate a master plan for addressing subsistence poaching at a
national level and reduce local people's reliance on poaching by providing
alternative livelihoods. Nominated by Dr. Tutilo Mudumba, co-director of the
Snares to Wares initiative (Rufford Foundation funding recipient) and himself a
former WCN Scholar (2016).
Suraj Baral (Nepal) - WCN Scholarship
Suraj will be using his scholarship to pursue his PhD at the University of
Bonn in Germany. He is planning to focus his studies on quantifying the
functional connectivity of the mugger crocodile across the Terai-Arc
Landscape in Nepal. After completing his degree, Suraj plans to return
to working at Resources Himalaya Foundation to strengthen the
corridors identified during his doctoral research. This will include
identifying areas of conflict and addressing causes in the corridors,
conducting public outreach programs focused on conservation of the
species and the ecosystem, and corridor restoration for crocodile
basking and breeding, with public participation. Suraj firmly believes
that wildlife conservation is only possible through active community
participation backed up by scientific data. Nominated by Dr. Kanchan
Thapa of WWF Nepal.
Tobias Otieno (Kenya) - Handsel Scholarship
Toby is planning to use his scholarship to pursue his PhD at the
University of York. He plans to focus on the impact of
infrastructure on lions and people in northern Kenya, highlighting
three key themes: 1) describing the lion structure within the
community landscape unique to northern Kenya and the Samburu
culture; 2) looking at the impact that infrastructure (both large
and small scale) will have on lion movements; and 3) through a
unique scenario framework tool developed by the University of
York (KESHO tool), working towards understanding the impact
that the changing landscape will have on people and their culture
using a participatory approach and future modeling. Toby plans
to continue working with Ewaso Lions after completing his
degree to put the results of his doctoral degree into practice, as
well as to encourage other young Kenyans to pursue
conservation as a career. Nominated by Dr. Shivani Bhalla of
Ewaso Lions.
Zablon Fataely (Tanzania) - WCN Scholarship
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Zablon plans to use his scholarship to pursue a master's degree at Sokoine
University of Agriculture. He plans to focus his thesis on assessing the
contribution of the alternative sources of income on reducing human-
elephant conflict to local communities living adjacent to the protected areas
with the case of the Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem in southern Tanzania, and
then to continue working with Wildlife Connection after completing his
degree to improve their existing alternative livelihoods program. Zablon also
hopes to work to improve conservation education in Tanzania in both
primary and secondary schools. His goal is to advocate for and engage
government authorities on updating the national curriculum to include
conservation. Nominated by Sarah Maisonneuve, executive director of
Wildlife Connection.
Veterinary Scholars
Daniel Sempebwa (Uganda) - Plum Foundation Vet Scholarship
Daniel is planning to use his scholarship to pursue a master's degree at
the Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague. His intended thesis topic
will focus on anthropogenic activities around chimpanzee habitats as
stress factors in the Albertine Rift region, and their role in the
transmission of zoonotic intestinal parasites among chimpanzees,
humans, and livestock, through measuring the helminth worm burden in
chimpanzees. As a wildlife health professional, this will provide more
information on the risks of infectious diseases that pose a significant
and growing threat to the health, well-being, and long-term viability of
wild primate populations. After completing his degree, Daniel plans to
work to promote ecosystem health at the human-domestic wildlife
interface through, for example, broadening livestock treatment
programs, expanding access to vaccines for domestic animals, and
developing policies for all chimpanzee sites to adhere to health
monitoring guidelines. Nominated by Paul Hatanga of WCS Uganda -
who was himself a 2020 WCN Scholarship recipient.
Eric Niyonkuru (Rwanda)
Eric is planning to use his scholarship to pursue a master's degree in
wildlife health and management through the Department of Clinical
Studies at the University of Nairobi. For his thesis topic, he plans to focus
on the assessment of respiratory infections in the population of
endangered golden monkeys around Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.
After completing his degree, Eric aims to use the skills and knowledge
acquired during his program a) to monitor and manage disease outbreaks
among the wild animal population in and around Volcanoes National Park;
b) to contribute to the veterinary unit wildlife health and treatment; c) to
improve disease surveillance and carry out investigations on relevant
diseases; d) to establish a health database of primates, including
mountain gorillas and chimpanzees; e) to develop and implement park
health and safety policies, strategies, guidelines, regulations and
procedures; f) to train other wildlife veterinarians, interns, and students;
g) to analyze research data in and around national parks in Rwanda; and
h) to provide scientific and technical advice for orphaned primates and
confiscated wildlife. Nominated by Dr. Olivier Nsengimana of the Rwanda
Wildlife Conservation Association.
Hamere Kelemework (Ethiopia)
Hamere plans to use her scholarship to pursue a master's degree at
the University of Sassari in Italy. For her thesis, she will collaborate
with the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Program (WCN Partner) to
analyze existing data sets to find ways to improve the success of
trapping Ethiopian wolves for vaccination, health follow-up, and
WORK THAT FRO
ongoing vaccination monitoring. She will assess a) Ethiopian wolf
captures and field immobilization, b) drivers of trapping success, and
c) trapability (by age, sex, and as affected by pack size and territory
size) in order to evaluate the safety of various methods, impact on
animal well-being, best practices, and to predict capture probabilities
(by age, sex, etc.) for planning disease interventions. In the longer
term, as a veterinarian and conservationist, her ambition is to see
conservation translocations and well-designed breeding programs put
into action with endangered species like Walia ibex, Ethiopian wolf,
Grevy’s zebra, Osgood’s Ethiopian toad, and the Ethiopian amphibious
rat. As a veterinarian, she plans to help with animal health follow-up
and genetic studies for designing smart breeding modes, with the goal
that no species go extinct in Ethiopia. Nominated by Kumara Wakjira
Gemeda, director of the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority.
Isabela Mascarenhas (Brazil)
Isabela plans to use her scholarship to pursue her PhD at the Universidade
Federal de Viçosa, focusing on developing plans for active conservation
management to protect the endangered buffy-tufted-ear marmoset. Her
research will establish a model based on IUCN guidelines for translocations
and reintroductions by identifying potential pathogens and associated risks
present in captive and wild populations of this species. The outcome of her
study will establish a disease risk and prevention protocol for the animals that
are candidates for release, considerations for zoonotic pathogens, and
guidelines for minimizing the risk of introducing new pathogens into the
destination area. She also hopes to reinforce the work of environmental
education with the local communities, where there is the potential for
zoonotic disease transmission. Nominated by Dr. Fabiano Melo, professor at
the Federal University of Viçosa and IUCN regional vice-chair for Brazil and
Guianas of the Primate Specialist Group.
Leandre Murhula (DRC)
Leandre plans to use his scholarship to pursue a master's degree at
the Consejo Superior de Investigations Científicas of Spain. He plans
to focus his research on the prevalence and disease risk assessment
of tuberculosis in Grauer’s Gorillas in Kahuzi Biega National Park
using a One Health approach - meaning he will look at the disease
rates in gorillas (both habituated and non-habituated), local
livestock herds, and humans that live in the area. After completing
his master's degree, Leandre plans to continue working with the
Centre de Recherche en Science Naturelles, Lwiro in their newly
opened molecular biology lab, using his new skills to continue to
study tuberculosis and also to open a line of research focused on the
consumption of bushmeat and the risk of emerging infectious
diseases linked to great ape conservation. Nominated by Dr. Deo
Kujirakwinja of WCS' Eastern DRC Program.
Theophile Kiluba Wa Kiluba (DRC)
Theophile plans to use his scholarship to complete an applied training course
on techniques to diagnose respiratory disease in great apes at the Biomedical
Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands. After completing this training,
Theophile's aim is to contribute to reducing the risks of emergence,
transmission, and spread of emerging infectious zoonotic diseases while
implementing a surveillance system for wildlife diseases looking at the
wildlife-livestock-human interface (i.e. a One Health approach). He will focus
his efforts around Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the DRC and other protected
areas regionally and hopes to contribute to raising awareness in local
communities related to the risk of diseases, with particular attention paid to
those related to bushmeat consumption. Nominated by Luis Flores Giron,
head veterinarian and capacity-building manager at the Centre de
Rehabilitation des Primates du Lwiro.
Ulaankhuu Ankhanbaatar (Mongolia)
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Ulaankhuu will be using his scholarship to complete his PhD at the Mongolian
State University of Life Sciences. Through his research, he is exploring the
role that infectious diseases play in species extinction. In 2019, the first
outbreak of African Swine Fever was recorded in Mongolia, infecting wild
boars - Ulaankhuu is specifically investigating the molecular characterization
and identification of the strain of this virus isolated in Mongolia. During his
PhD studies, he is working to learn new techniques and assays on how to
detect African Swine Fever in domestic and wild pigs and to understand the
routes of disease transmission so that he can provide training and awareness
to local people and professionals, including rangers and other veterinarians,
on how to prevent livestock disease spill over to wild populations. He hopes
to use the knowledge and experience gained during his PhD to act as a key
virology veterinarian who can respond to wildlife disease and virus outbreaks
in his country. Nominated by Dr. Enkhtuvshin Shiilegdamba of WCS Mongolia.
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