Louisa Mamalis

PhD topic title: Landscapes for the conservation of the Giant Ibis in Cambodia

PhD supervisors: Dr Colin Beale, Dr Kate Arnold and Simon Mahood

Biography and research

A BSc in Environmental Science from Leeds University and an Erasumus Mundus International Masters in Applied Ecology enabled me to develop my interest in the natural world and allowed me to focus on my knowledge and skills within conservation biology.The opportunity to study in France, Ecuador, Portugal and Brazil during my masters gave me diverse fieldwork experience and enabled me to develop a more international perspective on conservation and its challenges.

These experiences equipped me with the knowledge and abilities to undertake my PhD which is exploring landscape level conservation techniques for the giant ibis. The giant ibis is a critically endangered bird species living solely within the north and northeast of Cambodia. I will be combining data from fieldwork such as nest counts, water hole physical characteristics, audio data as well as large scale remote sensing data. I am working in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society to develop data collection techniques which will hopefully improve the efficiency and accuracy of data collection to help improve the conservation of this species in the future.

Funder

• NERC ACCE DTP (2020-2024)