July 11, 2025

It's July, and despite months of preparation, it seems like the days are slipping away too quickly. The flights are booked, vaccinations received, prescription for Malaria prophylaxis picked up, international driving permit collected, clothing treated with permethrin, field gear checked and re-checked. A jumble of power adapters, audio recording devices, charging bank and cables, camera equipment, camp towels and soap, and field boots have disappeared into a duffel. They'll likely be pulled out and repacked multiple times before my departure as I attempt to condense a month's worth of clothing and gear into some combination of luggage that represents a carry-on and a personal item.

On July 16, 2025, I'll be embarking on my first field season as a PhD student in the Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence and Salerno Lab at Colorado State. My day will begin in Northern California. Over the course of the next 36 hours, I'll fly to Denver, Colorado; Istanbul, Turkey; and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. After attempting to catch a few hours of sleep in a quiet corner of the airport, my research advisor and I will haul our luggage aboard a turboprop plane to fly to Iringa, a bustling town nestled in the Udzungwa Mountains at roughly 5,000 feet (1540 m) elevation. We'll spend a couple of days in Iringa collecting supplies and picking up an aging and temperamental Toyota 4x4 before driving the final 60 miles (95 km) to the rural village of Kitisi. 

Situated near Ruaha National Park, Kitisi is the home base of Lion Landscapes. An NGO founded on roughly 15 years of work in this rugged region, Lion Landscapes aims to reduce the costs of living alongside large carnivores to local communities that depend on agriculture or livestock for income (often referred to collectively as "agropastoralists"). You can learn more about the organization's roots in this podcast featuring one of the founders in conversation with the brilliant Gordon Buchanan. Though Lion Landscapes has grown to work in other areas of Tanzania and Kenya, I feel very fortunate to be collaborating with their long-standing Kitisi team for this study.

Until mid-August, I'll be working closely with a local researcher to interview Maasai and Barabaig families who have been living in areas heavily trafficked by lions, hyenas, leopards, and other wildlife. Though awe-inspiring in a National Geographic documentary, these carnivore species are more likely to inspire fear and anger in their native range, where they often prey on cattle, goats, and sheep that may be the sole assets owned by rural households. Lions and leopards will also attack adults and children, and the number of encounters between people and these powerful predators is projected to increase as climate change strains water and prey resources in protected areas like Ruaha National Park. This will force carnivores to venture outside the boundaries of the park and into surrounding villages, farm fields, roadways and riverbeds, increasing the likelihood of conflict with their human neighbors.

Through my research this summer, I am interested in understanding what local people envision "coexistence" with carnivores looking like. I am also searching for patterns in household characteristics that might set some families up to cope with these challenges more successfully than others. There is a great deal of evidence from past research to suggest that simply tallying up livestock losses isn't a good predictor of how likely a family will be to tolerate the presence of wild predators. By engaging local people in storytelling and discussion, I hope to develop a more nuanced understanding of what does shape tolerant attitudes toward these species. 

Most immediately, this could help to inform program investments by Lion Landscapes and its donors. But human-carnivore conflict is a global issue. On a larger scale, I hope this work - and the next phase of my research, slated for 2026 - will play a small part in assisting other communities in Africa to become more resilient to the challenges of sharing space with large carnivores in an increasingly crowded and resource-strained future. 

To join me on this journey, you can follow along with new posts in the Field Notes blog on this website or LinkedIn. My work is partially supported by the Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence and the Salerno Lab. I am actively fundraising for the next phase of my research, and welcome referrals to funders who are interested in supporting work on global challenges including human-wildlife conflict, poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and the impacts of a changing climate on all of these issues.