Ivonne Kienast

I am a behavioral biologist and wildlife conservationist. As a Ph.D. student I am interested in studying movement patterns and population densities of forest elephants throughout their range, and the connection between forest elephants and other wildlife, using PAM and camera traps.

As a part of the Elephant Listening Project team, I manage a research site in Dzanga Bai (UNESCO World Heritage Site) in the Central African Republic, where we study demography and behavior of forest elephants. One of the main foci of our project is to create a hotspot for capacity building and training for central African researchers.

I have several years of research experience in the central African rainforest, having managed a chimpanzee project in Gabon for the Max-Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology (Germany) and the Mondika Gorilla Project in the Republic of Congo for the Wildlife Conservation Society (Congo-USA). My main interest is to foster conservation of wildlife and its habitat through research and education. Being a deeply passionate field researcher makes me see it as our duty to help protect and save the remaining treasures of nature, and to guide other people to the understanding of the importance of such an endeavor.