In 2018 I started working in Kenya’s Maasai Mara with the Mara Cheetah Project (MCP) whilst completing my dissertation for my M.Sc. in Wild Animal Biology at the Royal Veterinary College in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London. My dissertation looked at how we can use local ecological knowledge to study the distribution of large carnivores outside of protected areas. After graduating I returned to the Maasai Mara as a Research Assistant first on the MCP and then subsequently on the Biome Health Project (BHP), run by University College London, for a further three years conducting a large camera trap survey. Whilst the focus of the BHP was on broader biodiversity metrics using camera traps my main interests remained carnivores and I began to develop ideas for my DPhil. I will be joining WildCRU in autumn 2022 and plan to study carnivores across East Africa focusing on small-medium sized species and combining different types of data to inform conservation management of the species across the region. I am particularly interested in how intraguild interactions regulate their populations, how these interactions are being affected by changes in anthropogenic pressures, and what this might mean for the conservation of these species.

Publications

Madsen, E.K., Elliot, N.B., Mjingo, E.E., Masenga, E.H., Jackson, C.R., May, R.F, Røskaft, E., and Broekhuis, F. (2020) Evaluating the use of Local Ecological Knowledge in determining large carnivore habitat use and occurrence. Ecological Indicators doi: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106737

Broekhuis, F., Madsen, E. K., Keiwua, K., and Macdonald, D.W. (2019) Using GPS collars to investigate the frequency and behavioural outcomes of intraspecific interactions among carnivores: A case study of male cheetahs in the Maasai Mara, Kenya. PLoS ONE 14(4):e0213910 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213910

Broekhuis, F., Madsen, E.K., and Klaassen, B. (2019) Predators and pastoralists: how anthropogenic pressures inside wildlife areas influence carnivore space use and movement behaviour. Animal Conservation doi:10.1111/acv.12483

Madsen, E.K. and Broekhuis, F. (2018 – online, 2020 – print) Determining multi-species site use outside of the protected areas in the Maasai Mara, Kenya, using false positive occupancy modelling. Oryx doi:10.1017/S0030605318000297