Alison Govaerts is a PhD student in the Wildlife Free to Roam research group with the Conservation Ecology and Entomology Department and with the Mathematical Biosciences Lab (BioMath) in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Stellenbosch University. She holds an MSc in ‘Biodiversity, Conservation and Restoration’ from the University of Antwerp (UA) and a BSc in Biology from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

Alison is also a part-time Junior Data Analyst for the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), with whom she collaborates on her PhD project and supports various lion-focused initiatives, including lion counts in Kruger National Park (KNP; South Africa) and lion research in Limpopo National Park (LNP; Mozambique).

Alison is interested in combining advanced statistical analyses with animal movement data to investigate underlying patterns in movement behavior, and use this to support conservation strategies. Her current PhD research focuses on the influence of environmental variables and human pressures on lion habitat use, home range dynamics and connectivity at the interface of KNP and LNP in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area.

Project title: Lions and humans in the GLTFCA – The ecology of co-existence

Supervisors: Dr. Katharina von Dürckheim, Prof. Hui, Dr. Sam Ferreira, Dr. Lizanne Roxburgh