My interest in the natural world began as a child exploring the bountiful open spaces around my home in Savannakhet Province, Laos PDR.

Prior to my time at WildCRU, I received an AUSAID scholarship in 2002 to complete a BA Geographic Information Systems from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.I worked as a GIS specialist for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Laos. In 2010, I returned to Australia and received an MA in Geographical Sciences from the Australian National University. Once again, I returned to WCS in Laos, but as a special landscape ecologist and biodiversity management project coordinator. My passion for wildlife conservation and wildlife studies steadily grew during my time with WCS.

My journey with WildCRU began in 2012 as a postgraduate diploma student in International Wildlife Conservation Practice. It was a unique and invaluable opportunity that enhanced my competency to work in the wildlife research field and to become a conservation biologist. After the diploma I undertook a study of clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa in Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park (NEPL NP), Laos, under the support of WildCRU. The study aimed to study clouded leopards and their associated guild species to understand, in particular, their links with carbon conservation and, more generally, forest conservation. The study also led to the development of my DPhil research with WildCRU with the primary interest in investigating the intraguild interactions of large carnivores and their impacts on their prey and other smaller carnivores in the NEPL NP. I graduated with a DPhil in Zoology in 2019 from the University of Oxford.

I am currently working at the Wildlife Conservation Society Lao PDR as a Conservation Science Director.

I am also working on a WildCRU project on development of a Clouded Leopard Toolkit for Laos.

My publications:

Rasphone, A., Kéry, M., Kamler, J. F. & Macdonald, D. W. (2019). Documenting the demise of tiger and leopard, and the status of other carnivores and prey, in Lao PDR’s most prized protected area: Nam Et – Phou Louey. Global Ecology and Conservation 20, e00766.

Macdonald, D. W., Bothwell, H. M., Kaszta, Ż., Ash, E., Bolongon, G., Burnham, D., Can, Ö. E., Campos-Arceiz, A., Channa, P., Clements, G. R., Hearn, A. J., Hedges, L., Htun, S., Kamler, J. F., Kawanishi, K., Macdonald, E. A., Mohamad, S. W., Moore, J., Naing, H., Onuma, M., Penjor, U., Rasphone, A., Rayan, D. M., Ross, J., Singh, P., Tan, C. K. W., Wadey, J., Yadav, B. P. & Cushman, S. A. (2019). Multi-scale habitat modelling identifies spatial conservation priorities for mainland clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa). Divers. Distrib. 25, 1639-1654.

Johnson, A., Goodrich, J., Hansel, T., Rasphone, A., Saypanya, S., Vongkhamheng, C., Venevongphet & Strindberg, S. (2016). To protect or neglect? Design, monitoring, and evaluation of a law enforcement strategy to recover small populations of wild tigers and their prey. Biol. Conserv. 202, 99-109.