Egil Dröge was born in The Netherlands. He obtained a M.Sc. degree in Ecology and a M.Sc. degree in GIS from Wageningen University in 2005. In 2006 he volunteered for 8 months with Durrell Wildlife on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia before returning to The Netherlands to work at a company as a GIS consultant. In early 2008 he joined African Wild Dog Conservation, Zambia (AWDC), studying African wild dogs in and around South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. He was instrumental in the growth of the project and soon AWDC evolved into the Zambian Carnivore Programme (ZCP) studying all large carnivores in Zambia in three ecosystems, and gained extensive experience in survey and field techniques. In August 2014 he moved to Bozeman, Montana to work on his Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr. Scott Creel with data collected during his time in Zambia. This was completed in April 2017. One of the things he enjoyed most during his time in Zambia was working with, and assisting Zambians in obtaining their graduate degrees.

Egil joined WildCRU in 2017 as course coordinator/lead tutor of the Recanati-Kaplan Centre Post Graduate Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practice.

Publications

Dröge, E, Creel, S, Becker, MS, Loveridge, AJ, Sousa, LL, Macdonald, DM. (in press). Assessing the performance of index calibration survey methods to monitor populations of wide-ranging low-density carnivores. Ecology and Evolution.

Rosenblatt E, Creel S, Schuette, P, Becker M, Christianson, D, Dröge E, Mweetwa T, Mwape H, Merkle, J M’soka J, Masonde, J, Simpamba, T. 2019. Do protection gradients explain patterns in herbivore densities? An example with ungulates in Zambia’s Luangwa Valley. Plos One 14:e0224438.

Creel S, Becker M, Dröge E, M’soka J, Matandiko W, Rosenblatt E, Mweetwa T, Mwape H, Vinks M, Goodheart B, Merkle J, Mukula T, Smit D, Sanguinetti C, Dart C, Christianson D, Schuette P. 2019. What explains variation in the strength of behavioral responses to predation risk? A standardized test with large carnivore and ungulate guilds in three ecosystems. Biological Conservation 232:164–172.

Dröge E, Creel S, Becker M, Christianson D, M’Soka J, Watson F. 2019. Response of wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) movements to spatial variation in long term risks from a complete predator guild. Biological Conservation 233:139–151.

Mweetwa T, Christianson D, Becker M, Creel S, Mwape H, Masonde J, Rosenblatt E, Merkle J, Droge E, Simpamba T. 2018. Quantifying lion (Panthera leo) demographic response following a three-year moratorium on trophy hunting. PloS One 13:e0197030.

Becker MS, Durant SM, Watson FGR, Parker M, Gottelli D, M’Soka JLJ, Droge E, Nyirenda M, Schuette PA, Dunkley S, Brummer R. 2017. Using dogs to find cats: detection dogs as a survey method for wide-ranging cheetah. Journal of Zoology 302:184–192.

Creel S, Dröge ED, M’soka JLJ, Smit D, Becker MS, Christianson DA, Schuette PA. 2017. The relationship between direct predation and antipredator responses : a test with multiple predators and multiple prey. Ecology 98:2081–2092.

Droge E, Creel S, Becker MS. 2017. Risky times and risky places interact to affect prey behaviour. Nature Ecology & Evolution 1:1123–1128.

Dröge ED, Creel S, Becker MS, M’Soka JLJ. 2017. Spatial and temporal avoidance of risk within a large carnivore guild. Ecology and Evolution 7:189–199.

Creel S, M’soka J, Dröge E, Rosenblatt E, Becker M, Matandiko W, Simpamba T. 2016. Assessing the sustainability of African lion trophy hunting, with recommendations for policy. Ecological Applications 26:2347–2357.

M’Soka JLJ, Creel S, Becker MS, Droge ED. 2016. Spotted hyaena survival and density in a lion depleted ecosystem: the effects of prey availability, humans and competition between large carnivores in African savannahs. Biological Conservation 201:348–355.

Creel S, Becker MS, Christianson D, Dröge ED, Hammerschlag N, Hayward MW, Karanth U, Loveridge AJ, Macdonald DW, Matandiko W, M’Soka J, Murray D, Rosenblatt E, Schuette P. 2015. Questionable policy for large carnivore hunting. Science 350:1473–1775.

Rosenblatt E, Becker MS, Creel S, Droge ED, Mweetwa T, Schuette PA, Watson F, Merkle J, Mwape H. 2014. Detecting declines of apex carnivores and evaluating their causes: An example with Zambian lions. Biological Conservation 180:176–186.

Becker MS, Mcrobb R, Watson FGR, Droge ED, Kanyembo B, Murdoch J, Kakumbi C. 2013. Evaluating wire-snare poaching trends and the impacts of by-catch on elephants and large carnivores. Biological Conservation 158:26–36.

Berentsen AR, Dunbar MR, Becker MS, M’soka J, Droge ED, Sakuya NM, Matandiko W, McRobb R, Hanlon CA. 2013. Rabies, canine distemper, and canine parvovirus exposure in large carnivore communities from two Zambian ecosystems. Vector borne and zoonotic diseases 13:643–649.

Creel S, et al. 2013. Conserving large populations of lions – the argument for fences has holes. Ecology Letters 16:1413-e13.