M. Justin O'Riain

Having started his career as a behavioural ecologist working on mammalian sociality, he responded to the deepening local and global conservation challenges by applying behavioural ecology skills to conservation conflicts. Over a decade of research on the Cape Peninsula baboons has informed both management and policy and provided us with a successful template for firstly understanding and subsequently attempting to provide sustainable solutions to local conservation conflicts. The approach he helped develop is being applied to a diverse array of species (e.g. cape clawless otters, jackal, caracal, riverine rabbits, leopards, white sharks), in diverse habitats (urban, rural, national parks and oceans). In July 2017, these projects will fall under the new Conservation Conflict Research Institute (CCRI) which seeks to add the human (social and economic) dimensions to understanding the drivers of conflict and mitigating the impacts. The Urban Caracal Project is thus well aligned with the new Institute and promises to further our understanding on the impacts of urbanization and humans on Peninsula 's terrestrial apex predator.

May 2016