APPLIED CONSERVATION BIOLOGY

The Botswana Predator Conservation Trust has maintained a field research site on the edge of the Moremi Game Reserve for nearly thirty years, establishing it amongst some of the longest running wildlife research projects in the world. Over this period we have developed a unique data set documenting the life histories of not only the wild dog packs in the study area, but also in recent years the other members of the large carnivore guild, the lions, leopards, cheetahs and spotted hyaenas.

Alongside our long term monitoring work this research camp has served as the base for a long succession of graduate and postdoctoral students working on a wide variety of projects, but all united by a theme of developing our scientific understanding of these various predators with a specific view to better informing their management and conservation while additionally seeking to develop new methods for reducing human wildlife conflict (see our Projects page).

Through detailed behavioural analyses utilising both direct observation and remote monitoring via satellite collars, partnered occasionally with carefully designed experiments, BPCT researchers have established a wealth of knowledge and information that we share with the wider scientific community (see our page of Publications) but which also allow us to collaborate with Botswana’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks in achieving their goals.

Our work continues to diversify as we seek to ensure we understand the important parameters impacting on these species and so most effectively address the challenges to a sustainable future, but a commitment to sound scientific understanding remains at the heart of everything we do.

POST DOCTORAL RESEARCH COORDINATOR

KRYSTYNA GOLABEK, PHD

Krystyna Golabek joined BPCT in 2011 as Research Coordinator and Post doctoral researcher. She is also a visiting researcher at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at the University of Oxford. Krys’s main interests lie in communication and social cognition, and her PhD work at the University of Bristol investigated vocal communication in pied babblers, a cooperative bird species found in southern Africa. Krys’s post doctoral research at BPCT focuses on communication and social knowledge within the large carnivore guild; particularly exploring inter-specific awareness via various modalities of communication. Understanding how the top order predators avoid and/or search out each other is an important component to developing effective management strategies for these threatened and endangered species.

WP Feedback

Dive straight into the feedback!
Login below and you can start commenting using your own user instantly

Pin It on Pinterest