I completed my BSc (Hons) in Biology and Marine Biology at the University of Cape Town, where my dissertation focused on temporal changes in the distribution and habitat use of African clawless otters in the urban and peri-urban environments of the Cape Peninsula. Following my undergraduate studies, I pursued an MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at Oxford, where I investigated the dynamics of wild meat markets, as well as the correlation between wild meat sales and cocoa farming, in rural southeastern Nigeria. These projects helped to cultivate an interdisciplinary knowledge base, which I aim to strengthen throughout my research.

I have recently begun studying towards a DPhil in Biology at WildCRU, supervised by Claudio Sillero and Andy Loveridge. My research evaluates the habitat use and behaviour of spotted hyenas across southern African ecosystems, specifically relating to the key environmental, temporal and human variables affecting large carnivores in the region. As the African continent doubles its population to 2.5 billion over the next generation, human settlements and wildlife populations will increasingly overlap, intensifying both direct and indirect negative interactions. Understanding the socioecological factors driving negative human-hyena interactions is essential to developing context-specific solutions.