Having graduated in Biological Sciences in 2005, I have since been directing my academic and scientific efforts to better understand the ecology and biology of terrestrial wild carnivores and the triggering factors of Human and Carnivore Conflict.

During the last five years I have developed my professional, academic and personal skills by working and volunteering in several conservation projects throughout Brazil. This has included internships/volunteer work in the Small Wild Cat’s Conservation Program, in the upper north of Brazilian Cerrado; the Maned Wolf Conservation Project, working on human perception about wild carnivores at Serra da Canastra National Park; and the Lowland Tapir Conservation Project in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest. Besides this, I have also had the opportunity to work several times in the Brazilian Amazon as environmental consultant, working not only on carnivores, but also on rodents and bats diversity. In 2010 I was invited to join, as field biologist and researcher, the “Cerrado Mammals Conservation Program”, which focus is the conservation of wild predators, their natural preys and habitat, in the Central Brazilian Cerrado.

I first joined WildCRU as a Postgraduate Diploma student in 2011, when I had the opportunity to undertake high-quality training on the use of practical approaches to study and conserve large carnivores. During the Diploma I improved my skills on the understanding of human-carnivore conflict, and, using real data from India and Africa, I developed useful and contextualized material to guide local policies to minimize carnivore attacks on humans and livestock.

More recently I finished my Masters at WildCRU, which investigated the main the landscape and bioclimatic features influencing the distribution of lions, leopards and spotted hyaenas, and their attacks on livestock, in the surroundings of Ruaha National Park, Southeast Tanzania. This project served as a baseline for my DPhil, in which I will be studying the spatial ecology of large carnivores in hitherto poorly-known Ruaha landscape.

Diploma Projects

• Spatial-based modelling of human-carnivore conflict: a case study from tiger and leopard attacks on humans in Central India.

• Human-carnivore conflict in Tanzania: spatial features and livestock husbandry practices predisposing carnivore attacks on livestock in the surroundings of Ruaha National Park