Dylan joined WildCRU in 2024 as a DPhil student (Biology Department, University of Oxford), supervised by Dr. Amy Dickman, Dr. Egil Dröge, and Dr. Oswald Schmitz. He is a member of the Zambian Carnivore Programme (ZCP) and has spent nearly a decade working across Eastern and Southern Africa on issues related to large carnivore ecology, conservation, and human-wildlife coexistence.

His doctoral research investigates the ecological impacts and socio-economic drivers of wire snare poaching, focusing on the human and environmental factors that influence where snares are placed and the unintended consequences for non-target species. By integrating satellite imagery, GPS tracking data, and systematic snare surveys, his work aims to predict snare risk across large landscapes. In Zambia, he is using population modeling to assess the impact of de-snaring interventions on African wild dogs.

Originally from the United States, Dylan holds a dual degree in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Molecular & Cell Biology from the University of Connecticut. As an undergraduate, he trained as a field guide at Entabeni Game Reserve in South Africa, where he developed a strong interest in carnivore tracking and monitoring. He later completed a Master of Environmental Science at Yale University, where he examined the socio-ecological drivers of human-carnivore conflict in Botswana’s Makgadikgadi region. This research combined geospatial risk modeling with participatory community mapping to produce depredation risk maps for lions and wild dogs.

In his DPhil, Dylan’s research spans multiple protected areas, including Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park and Zambia’s Liuwa, Kafue, and South Luangwa National Parks. In Uganda, he collaborates with the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the Innovation for Conservation (ICON) Program, and the community-based Snares to Wares Initiative to improve snare detection and prevention. In Zambia, he builds on ZCP’s long-term carnivore monitoring to understand how poaching pressure affects carnivore movement, space use, and long-term population trends.

His research is supported by the NERC DTP in Environmental Research, with additional support from the Connected Conservation Foundation and the Airbus Foundation.

Dylan is also passionate about wildlife photography and storytelling. He strives to bridge the gap between research and the communities where conservation takes place, using digital media to share the ecological, cultural, and economic relationships between people and wildlife.

You can find Dylan’s Storymaps here: Dylan’s StoryMaps