Project
I’m a quantitative wildlife biologist with a strong interest in ungulate ecology and human-wildlife conflicts. My research has focused on how animal movement and behavior is shaped by the complex landscape of risk, characteristic of human-dominated environments. I want to understand how animals navigate the risk landscape during resource acquisition along a gradient of human disturbance and to what extent humans as superpredators alter predator-prey ecology. It has been shown that the impact of predators on their prey goes far beyond the numerical reduction through killing. Therefore, I want to understand how top-down control (by multiple-predators including human hunters) act together with bottom-up processes (i.e. resources) in driving prey behaviour and how this eventually translates into individual differences in performance.
I have worked for and in collaboration with non-governmental organizations, where I engage in promoting a more science-based approach to wildlife management and improving data collection protocols across regions. I collaborate with wildlife practitioners and hunting associations to better understand the effect of hunting and management regulations on population change of ungulate species, such as red deer, chamois and wild boar. Moreover, as a member of the research commission of the Swiss National Park, I’m involved in projects aimed at identifying drivers of population dynamics of large herbivores in protected areas. Knowledge about non-managed ecosystems can greatly enhance our understanding of the impact of management interventions on wildlife populations.
Google Scholar – Research Gate – ORCID
CV
- Since 2026, Postdoc, University of Zurich
- Since 2024, Data analyst, KORA carnivore ecology and wildlife management
- Since 2018, Postdoc, Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionelle & Evolutive, CNRS
- 2019-2025, Project leader and data analyst, Wildtier Schweiz
- 2019-2025, Research associate, University of Zurich
- 2016-2018, Postdoc, University of Zurich
- 2011-2016, PhD, University of Zurich
- 2009-2011, Research assistant, University of Zurich
- 2007-2009, MSc in Ecology, University of Zurich & Nelson Mandela University
- 2001-2006, MSc in Cell Biology, University of Berne