Dr Lochran W Traill

Profile

I grew up in Zimbabwe, and I was drawn to wildlife conservation from a young age. I went to University in South Africa, and I worked and volunteered in the conservation and wildlife management sectors in Zimbabwe in between studies.

I then travelled to Darwin in Australia and worked at the Key Centre for Tropical Wildlife Management (now incorporated into RIEL at Charles Darwin University). In 2005, I was awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award to study for a PhD at the University of Adelaide. My field work was based in Kakadu National Park.

After my PhD, I travelled the world as a Postdoc. I worked at the University of Queensland, the University of the Witwatersrand and Imperial College London (Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowship). I then worked at Liverpool John Moores University as a Lecturer, before moving to Leeds Uni.

I teach at undergrad and postgrad level at Leeds, and I supervise research project students at BSc, MSc and PhD level. Professionally I am a member IUCN SSC Hippo Specialist Group, the IUCN SSC HWCC (Hippo Group), and the Southern African Wildlife Management Association. I am a reviewer for the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission, and an editor with the African Journal of Wildlife Research.

Responsibilities

• Member of the Student Experience and Opportunities Committee
• Member of the Faculty Research Ethics Committee

Research interests

I am interested in tropical ecology and conservation science, with some focus on Africa. More specifically, I am interested in humans and their effects on natural systems and populations. That is a broad field, but for now I focus on African trophy hunting, human wildlife conflict, and the role of trans-frontier conservation corridors. I work with people whose expertise is very different to mine, including engineers, computer scientists, social scientists and geneticists.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Adelaide (2009)

Professional memberships

• Southern African Wildlife Management Association
• IUCN SSC Hippo Specialist Group
• IUCN SSC Human Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence (Hippo Subgroup)

Student education

I teach broadly in the fields of applied population biology, ecology, conservation science and conservation technology. I manage two modules, namely ‘Advanced Topics in Conservation Science BLGY3247’ and ‘Population Dynamics BLGY5188’. 

Research groups and institutes

• Sustainable ecosystems and adaptation