Biography
I hold a bachelor’s degree in Forestry and Wildlife Management from the Cross River University of Technology in Nigeria. Few months after graduation, I won a Conservation Leadership Programme award to do an internship with the Nigeria programme of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). This 11-month internship focused on the Cross River gorilla conservation in the Cross River rainforest region in Nigeria where I come from.
In 2018, I completed the Durrell Endangered Species Management Graduate Certificate at the Durrell Wildlife Academy in Jersey, United Kingdom (validated by the University of Kent) and recently completed a MSc degree in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at the University of Oxford. I worked as a research assistant at the WCS for about a year before my MSc.
Research
I am interested in tropical ecology and in understanding animal-landscape interactions as well as the social drivers of species decline. My PhD research seeks to understand the distribution and ecology of the white-bellied pangolin in Nigeria. Specific emphasis is placed on their home range size, habitat selection, activity pattern and diet.
With guidance from Professor Balmford, I will also address fundamental questions about pangolin exploitation: how do local populations perceive pangolins? has the number of pangolins harvested changed over time? and what are the local patterns of pangolin consumption? Answers to these questions have implications in designing behavioural change interventions and enforcement actions against the trade of the world’s most trafficked wild mammal.
