Virginia joined WildCRU in 2025 as a DPhil student (Biology Department, University of Oxford), supervised by Dr. Egil Dröge and Dr. Amy Dickman, as well as by Dr. Emily Bennitt (Okavango Research Institute, Botswana). Her PhD is in partnership with CLAWS Botswana, where she has been working as the Lion Program Coordinator since early 2024.

Virginia has been involved in wildlife conservation for nearly a decade, from wildlife rescue and rehabilitation to the study of populations in the wild and human-carnivore conflict and coexistence, from Latin America to Southern Africa. During her PhD, she aims to develop the first comprehensive study of the lion (Panthera leo) ecology in the eastern panhandle of the Okavango Delta, Botswana.

Originally from Spain, Virginia holds a BSc in Biology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and a MSc in Ethology from the University of Cordoba (UCO), Spain. A year after graduation, she decided to move to Costa Rica, where she lived and worked for seven years in both, ex-situ and in-situ conservation projects – from the rescue and rehabilitation of injured wildlife at Las Pumas Rescue Centre and Sanctuary, assisting in the care and rehabilitation of 350-400 animals of 60-70 different species every year, as well as conducting behavioural studies, participating in the design of naturalized enclosures, and developing environmental enrichment and medical training programs; to the study of wild populations of jaguars and pumas at Gente y Fauna (People and Fauna) in the project “Welfare for Coexistence, communities with jaguars and pumas”, aimed at generating financial income for local rural communities and promoting human acceptance of jaguars and pumas, where she engaged in biological explorations, camera surveys, community trainings and working sessions for the Monitoring and Entrepreneurship teams of the Amigos de Felinos (Friends of Felids) Association. She also collaborated with Vías Amigables con la Vida Silvestre (Friendly Roads With Wildlife) in road monitoring and participated in the organization of the first Jaguar Symposium and the first Puma Symposium in Costa Rica.

In 2024, she moved to Botswana, where she has been working as the Lion Program Coordinator at CLAWS (Communities Living Among Wildlife Sustainably) Botswana, leading the Lion Program research by monitoring collared lions, conducting lion population surveys and supervising conflict mitigation in the eastern panhandle of the Okavango Delta.

Her doctoral research investigates the lion (Panthera leo) ecology – including demographics, connectivity, prey availability and landscape suitability – by integrating GPS tracking data, camera surveys, and daily monitoring. The ecological knowledge of lion populations in this heavily human-impacted ecosystem area, understanding the factors influencing lion demographics and survival, and potentially identifying natural wildlife corridors could help create effective strategies to favour the species conservation, ensuring continued dispersal ability and connectivity with other lion strongholds through the region and across the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA-TFCA).

Virginia also enjoys wildlife photography and storytelling, sharing her work and scientific knowledge on species, animal welfare and conservation through fun facts and simple language to fill the gap between science and the non-scientific community.