Brent Stapelkamp is a Zimbabwean and has been with the Hwange Lion Project full-time for 3 years.

As a holder of a Zimbabwe professional guide’s license Brent has guided safaris in Hwange prior to his joining the lion project. Brent spent several years in the UK and came back to Zimbabwe in 2006 after graduating with BSc Honours in “wildlife management” at Sparsholt College. Lions have been his passion for many years now but Brent’s special interest is conflict lions impacting rural people’s lives on Hwange’s periphery.

Brent initially joined the Hwange Lion research project as a field assistant to Zeke Davidson where he performed various data collection and data management tasks. With Zeke finishing his PhD Brent has continued as a Field Researcher collecting data from regular GPS collar downloads, interviews with people affected by lion depredation of livestock and the core observations of the marked prides in the study area.

Brent regularly gives talks and lectures to various groups from school children to tourists visiting the park’s safari camps. When Brent starts talking about lions he is hard to stop. Brent is married to Laurie Simpson who heads the project’s community conservation efforts and they are raising their son Oliver out there with the Lions.