 | Axel Moehrenschlager
Head of the Centre for Conservation Research
Over the last 20 years Dr. Axel Moehrenschlager has worked on the conservation and reintroduction of numerous endangered species and in recent years on the integration of science and community based conservation. After years of conservation studies relating to endangered swift foxes on the Canadian prairie he moved to England where his research culminated in a Ph.D. from Oxford University’s internationally acclaimed Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. After joining the Calgary Zoo in 1999, Axel founded the Centre for Conservation Research in 2003 which focuses on the reintroduction of iconic endangered species and the science of community-based conservation internationally. Axel is an adjunct associate professor at the University of Calgary, a graduate faculty member at the University of Guelph, and a senior research associate at Oxford University. He serves on a number of species or thematic committees nationally and internationally and since 2010 he chairs the North American & Caribbean section of the Swiss-based International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Passionate staff, dedicated graduate students, and strong national/international collaborations have now yielded an award-winning conservation research team for the Calgary Zoo that uses science to make a positive difference in the world.
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Lea Randall
Conservation Research Population Ecologist
Lea joined the Centre for Conservation Research in 2011 and leads the Northern Leopard Frog program. Her research focuses on the population dynamics of Northern Leopard Frogs and improving survey techniques for this at-risk species. Prior to this, she worked on a variety of projects for the Yukon Department of Environment, studying organisms such as bats and other small mammals, pine marten, wolverines, and insects. She received her BSc in Biology from the University of Victoria in 2006 and an MSc in Ecology from the University of Calgary in 2009. She has a keen interest in engaging the public in wildlife and conservation issues.
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Jill Hockaday
Conservation Research Coordinator
Jill
joined the Centre for Conservation Research in April 2008. Before
joining the CCR, she completed a B.Sc. in Geography from the University
of Calgary. Her background also includes Communications in the areas of
agriculture, food and environment. In addition to providing
administrative and coordination support for various Research projects
within the Centre, Jill is charged with the task of relaying the
Conservation Research message to the general public in a creative and
engaging manner. Jill is also a member of the Canadian Black-footed
Ferret Recovery Communications Team.
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Donna Sheppard
Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary Advisor
Donna has joined the Centre for Conservation Research through collaborationwith the Zoo’s Conservation Outreach
Department. The two departments are pursuing a publication partnership
aimed at documenting evidence of success in community based
conservation initiatives such as the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary. Through the Conservation OutreachDepartment, The Calgary Zoo provides financial and technical support to a
number of responsible Canadian and international conservation
initiatives. The Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary is an exemplary international
grassroots enterprise deserving of this outreach support. Donna has been
with the Conservation Outreach Department since 1999, working with some
of the Zoo’s international conservation partnerships. As a result,
Donna spends very little time on Canadian soil. During her first
international placement with the Zoo, she spent 4 years at the Guyana Zoo
in South America as part of the Calgary Zoo’s sister zoo program. Then
in 2004, Donna moved to Ghana, West Africa to be an advisor to the
Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary. More recently, Donna’s role was
expanded to include technical and research support to similar communal
conservation approaches in Ghana involving the Western sitatunga and the
West African manatee. Donna holds an MA in Physical Anthropology from
the University of Calgary where she studied the comparative ecology of
redtail monkeys living in logged and unlogged forest compartments in
Uganda, East Africa.
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Jana McPherson
Conservation Ecologist
Dr.
McPherson is a conservation ecologist interested in documenting,
understanding and mitigating human impacts on the distribution of
individual species, biodiversity and ecosystem function. She joined the Centre for Conservation Research in
January 2000 to assist an assessment of the socio-economic and
biological outcomes of the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary,
a zoo-supported community-based conservation initiative in Ghana. Her
expertise lies in modelling the occurrence and abundance of species in
space and time, and in developing tools and protocols to analyse data
that challenge the assumptions underlying most conventional statistical
methods. She is currently applying these skills to an analysis of human
impacts on the composition of reef fish communities in the Pacific
islands, work she began prior to joining the Calgary Zoo during
postdoctoral studies at Dalhousie University. Her doctoral studies at
the University of Oxford examined how distribution models based on
satellite-derived environmental data could enhance field observations of
birds in southern and eastern Africa, and thus contribute to the
conservation of that region’s more than 1,500 avian species.
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Tara Stephens
Population Ecologist
Tara
has a BSc in Biology from the University of Guelph, an Advanced Diploma
in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from the Centre of Geographic
Science, N.S. and recently completed her MSc in Conservation Biology at
the University of Calgary. She has worked as a field biologist studying
insect behaviour, forest ecology and small mammal population dynamics.
Tara joined the Centre for Conservation Research as the lead field
biologist and ecological modeller to assist in the development of new
understanding of key ecological factors that affect prairie dog and
ferret population dynamics in Grasslands National Park. This research
will be pertinent to the recovery of one of North America's most
endangered species and the conservation of Canada's only prairie dog
ecosystem.
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