Our Team
Key staff from Durrell involved in our training delivery
Hanitra Andrianantenaina
Madagascar Training Officer
Hanitra Nomentsoa Andrianantenaina joined in 2020 as Durrell's new Madagascar Conservation Training Officer. Based in Antananarivo, she works closely alongside Durrell’s existing Madagascar conservation staff, and is leading the design and delivery of our new training programme to build capacity among individuals and organisations involved in the co-management of Madagascar’s Protected Areas. Hanitra has an extensive background in conservation and capacity building, having worked most recently for GIZ in Madagascar.
Dr Bela Barata
field programmes officer
With a PhD in Biodiversity Management by the University of Kent, Bela expertise is population dynamics and monitoring. She is interested in ecology and conservation of species and their habitats, with special focus in rare and threatened tropical species. Bela has developed models that investigate population trends, improve the design of long-term monitoring programmes, and predict areas of occurrence of new populations of range-restricted species. With great enthusiasm Bela always puts scientific knowledge into practice in order to better inform habitat management and improve species conservation.
Chris Clark
trusts Officer
Chris joined Durrell in 1988 initially working in the animal departments. From 1992 he worked in the International Training Centre (now Durrell Conservation Academy), heading it up from 2002, focusing on developing, managing and presenting courses for endangered species conservation and management, including facilitation skills. In 2008, he moved into the fundraising department to work on funding proposals, identifying potential funders and managing grant stewardship where awards have been made. Chris regularly teaches fundraising, as well as facilitation and communication skills.
Dr Nik Cole
islands restoration manager
Nik’s work with Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) and the Mauritian Government’s National Parks and Conservation Service, focuses upon the restoration of island ecosystems, through the reintroduction of threatened fauna and flora to rebuild native communities, the use of analogue species to restore lost ecological interactions, and the management and removal of invasive species. Primarily located in Mauritius, Nik has a PhD from the University of Bristol and is involved with research and restoration projects within the Indian Ocean and Caribbean.
Elizabeth Corry
chough reintroduction MANAGER
Elizabeth Corry manages the red-billed chough reintroduction project for Durrell in Jersey - a groundbreaking multi-partner project which has seen the successful re-establishment of this corvid after an absence of around 100 years. Her career began with Durrell in 2004 as a volunteer based in St Lucia; she then relocated to Jersey Zoo in 2006 to become a keeper. She has worked on several of Durrell’s in-situ conservation projects including the St. Lucian iguana, Galapagos finch, and Montserrat galliwasp. She is a member of the BIAZA Reintroduction Advisory Group and Treasurer of Jersey Biodiversity Centre.
Daniel Craven
volunteer manager
Daniel is the current chairman of BIAZA Volunteers Managers Working Group and member of BIAZA MEC. He enjoys working on design of conservation workshops and meetings for a variety of internal and external clients including Durrell’s fundraising, operations, education and mammal teams, MWF and BIAZA. Daniel is Durrell’s full time Volunteer Manager and soccer fan, part time facilitator and filmmaker. For the Academy he specialises in teaching facilitation and communications skills for conservation.
David Dérand
mauritius training manager
As Managing Director of Durrell Conservation Training Ltd, David leads Durrell’s conservation training programme in Mauritius and South-West Indian Ocean islands. Having previously worked for 20 years in the environment and conservation sector in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, he joined Durrell in September 2017. David previously established the Reunion Island marine reserve educational programme, coordinated Cousin Island special reserve science programme, spearheaded coral reef restoration in the Seychelles, and coordinated the first aerial invasive alien species eradication in the Tuamotu and Gambier archipelago/French Polynesia.
Dr Lesley Dickie
chief executive officer
Lesley joined Durrell in 2016, launching its new nine-year strategy, ‘Rewilding our World’ in 2017. Educated at the universities of Glasgow (BSc Zoology), Cambridge (MPhil Biological Anthropology) and London (PhD), she began her career in zoos at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. After completing field work in Madagascar and finishing her doctorate she began working at the Zoological Society of London. In 2008 Lesley took on the role as Executive Director of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria and in 2011 began the ‘EAZA Academy’ training initiative.
Dr Helen Gath
conservation training officer
After obtaining a BSc in Zoology, Helen spent three years in Mauritius, which led to her PhD research on Echo parakeets. Whilst working for DEFRA and various NGOs since, Helen gained experience in species monitoring to inform policy and practice and in teaching the practice of successful conservation. Helen supports the delivery of the DESMAN graduate certificate course at the Academy and is developing a professional development programme and online learning management system for course participants and graduates across the world.
Gale Glendewar
conservation knowledge officer
Gale provides operational and strategic support across Durrell’s Academy, Learning and Conservation Departments and manages the Zoo Internship programme. She has an MSc in Environmental Management and Conservation and has worked for Durrell for 17 years with much of this time spent as a mammal keeper. She has provided training in tamarin husbandry in South America and worked on radio tracking and camera trapping projects on behalf of Durrell. She currently coordinates three endangered species studbooks.
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Aurélie Henshaw
mauritius training COORDINATOR
Based in Mauritius, Aurélie has worked for Durrell since 2015. She previously worked with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF). She has extensive species conservation experience having worked on the passerine project, pink pigeon project, the Round Island Restoration project and she was coordinator of the echo parakeet project. She completed Durrell’s Endangered Species Management Graduate Certificate (DESMAN) in 2013. Aurélie helps to develop, organise and deliver training designed to build the capacity of conservation professionals, focusing on the South-West Indian Ocean region.
Dr Mike Hudson
conservation science manager
Mike has a PhD on the conservation of the mountain chicken frog in the face of chytridiomycosis, a globally devastating fungal disease responsible for hundreds of amphibian extinctions. Mike’s work focusses on the science underpinning the conservation of Durrell’s species across the world, and includes work on a range of taxa from amphibians to mammals, reptiles and birds. Mike is especially interested in the monitoring of threatened species and loves spending time in the field with Durrell’s dedicated field teams.
Prof Carl Jones MBE
chief scientist
Carl has worked on the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues since 1979, now based partly in the UK, he is responsible for leading programmes to save the endangered endemic bats and birds of the Mascarenes, including the Rodrigues fruit bat, Mauritius pink pigeon, Mauritius kestrel and echo parakeet. He is currently directing the recovery of Mauritius passerines (in particular the Mauritius fody and olive white-eye) and the conservation of several endemic reptiles, and restoring plant communities. In recognition for his outstanding contribution to species contribution, Carl won the prestigious 2016 Indianapolis Prize – awarded to the world’s greatest conservationists.
Luke Jones
Carribbean regional programmes manager
Luke has a particular interest in using knowledge gained from ex-situ conservation work and research, to inform and develop in-situ rewilding strategies. Having trained with Durrell in Mauritius on the Endangered Species Recovery PGDip course, that combined both aspects of field work and theory, he was later recruited as a research assistant and ultimately Project Coordinator for the Mountain Chicken Recovery Programme; during which time he spent 3 years working to reintroduce the critically endangered mountain chicken frog to Montserrat through development novel habitat manipulation techniques designed to counter the impacts of lethal amphibian chytrid fungus. Today, Luke is based in St. Lucia where he works alongside local partners to develop and implement novel conservation strategies for endemic species such as the St. Lucian racer snake, whiptail, iguana & white breasted thrasher.
Sultan Khan
trusts & grants fundraising officer
Sultan manages the Trust and Grant fundraising needs for Durrell’s Conservation Knowledge department, with an emphasis on fundraising to support our training strategy. Before joining Durrell, Sultan completed an MSc in Conservation and International Wildlife Trade from the University of Kent, which led to research on conservation transparency. Previous work for NGOs has seen Sultan support youth engagement within CITES, helping to bridge the gap between existing and future policymakers. Bringing innovation to our work, he also has a background within the private sector.
Catherine Payne
conservation effectiveness manager
Catherine is a wildlife conservationist who is passionate about driving up standards of conservation practice and effectiveness across the world through adaptive management. Catherine and her team work across Durrell to help deliver more effective conservation through improved programme design and planning, monitoring and evaluation of results, programme review and adaptation, and long-term impact measurement. Catherine is particularly interested in embedding adaptive management into organisations and coordinating planning efforts across different levels to improve the effectiveness of conservation projects.
Dr Eluned Price
zoo research manager
Eluned first encountered Durrell as an undergraduate when she came to Jersey to do a short project on tamarins. After completing a PhD at the University of Stirling on cotton-top tamarins and carrying out field work on primates in Brazil, she returned to Durrell and became an experienced researcher and mammal keeper. Eluned is now responsible for co-ordinating all research carried out within Jersey Zoo.
Liz Purgal
academy administrator
Liz is responsible for all the administrative processes for prospective students from initial enquiry and application, to post-course evaluation. She is responsible for marketing the courses, in addition to monitoring and evaluation both in terms of course content and participants' professional development. Liz is a Marketing & Communications professional who studied Environment & Conservation at Manchester University; during her career and since moving to Jersey in 2004 she has worked in both private and public sectors.
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Dr Andrew Routh FRCVS
head of veterinary services
Andrew is a veterinary surgeon with nearly 40 years’ experience, over 25 in full-time zoo, wildlife and conservation medicine. He has worked on four continents with diverse species, including the ploughshare tortoise, Madagascan pochard, mountain chicken, pygmy hog, pink pigeon, Asia’s Gyps vultures, stranded marine mammal and turtles, chimpanzees in Sierra Leone and orangutans in Borneo. Andrew has published and lectured widely, as well as leading in-country capacity-building exercises with conservation workers. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2019.
Harriet Whitford
deputy head of bird department
Harriet first joined Durrell’s Bird Department in 1999. Originally trained on all bird routines, she spends most of her time now working on the Wetland section. She is responsible for both the Meller’s duck and Madagascar teal studbook and has a keen interest in avian incubation. While developing and applying her incubation skills here, she has also applied her knowledge in-situ; incubating and hand rearing both the Madagascar fody and olive white-eye in Mauritius. Harriet regularly teaches bird husbandry and egg incubation skills.
Dominic Wormell
head of mammal department
Dominic is an internationally renowned expert on the captive management of marmosets and tamarins, and has contributed to several in-situ recovery and reintroduction programmes for these small monkeys in their native South America, and on building up the skills needed by conservationists to care for them in their own countries. He has worked for Durrell for over 25 years and was involved in the first ever reintroduction to the wild of a captive-born black lion tamarin, and has been instrumental in generating support for the restoration of the Atlantic Forest.
Dr Tim Wright
conservation training manager
Tim oversees all of Durrell’s conservation training activities. Before joining the Academy in 2010, Tim previously worked for eleven years in Durrell's Mammal Department. During that time he was responsible for the lemur collection at Durrell, as well as carrying out fieldwork in Madagascar, providing GIS support to staff, co-ordinating population management of several captive breeding programmes, and working in Durrell’s conservation genetics lab. Tim oversees all course design, delivery and assessment, and is also responsible for liaising with the University of Kent for validated courses and ensuring that they are maintained at high standards.
Dr Glyn Young
head of bird department
Glyn manages wide scale bird monitoring in Jersey and specialises in wildfowl of the Indian Ocean. His MSc and PhD are for research on Meller’s duck and Madagascar teal. He first visited Madagascar in 1989 searching for Madagascar pochard, finally seeing one in 2006. He manages Durrell’s captive-breeding programme for this species and locally the red-billed chough reintroduction project. His work has encompassed the conservation of the mangrove finch in the Galápagos, the restoration of the Floreana Mockingbird, endemic dry forest birds in St Lucia and in Samoa, the conservation of the endemic Tooth-billed Pigeon, the ‘Little Dodo’.
Dr Richard Young
Director of Conservation Knowledge
Richard leads Durrell’s Conservation Knowledge department, which encompasses the Training, Learning, Science and Effectiveness teams and programmes. He is part of Durrell’s Senior Management Team which sets organisational strategy and oversees the delivery of our mission. Trained as an ecologist, Richard’s research interests are in wildlife monitoring and conservation impact evaluation. He now spends more time in meetings than in the field but is fortunate enough to regularly visit our training centres and field sites around the world.
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