My Story

My childhood love, a mixed-breed dog called 'Spot', one of the many animals present during my childhood.

Born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, my love for animals started at a young age. I was surrounded by dogs, cats, rabbits, and chickens as I grew up. Quickly, I wanted to become a veterinarian, to be able to care for all animals. However, in the two last years of high school, I was told I should focus on languages and writing, as I didn't have a 'scientific insight' and I wouldn't be able to succeed in Sciences at University. Luckily, I ignored that, as my passion for working with wildlife was too strong. I chose to study Biology, to be able to help more than just the animal in front of me and work towards conservation of habitats and species.

I obtained my Bachelor's in Biology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Brussels, and my Master's in 'Biodiversity: Conservation and Restoration' at the University of Antwerp, both located in Belgium. During my Master's, I had the opportunity to do my research internship at the Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation in Samos, Greece, and my thesis on the Ga-Selati river in South Africa, both focused on the biomagnification of macroplastics and pollutants in a marine and freshwater foodweb, respectively (read more about it in the 'Research' section and search 'Publications' in the 'News' section). However, I spent 2 weeks more in South Africa to do some volunteering at the Kariega Game Reserve, and I fell deeply in love with the local biodiversity. That's when I knew I wanted to be involved in African mammal conservation!

One of our tasks at the Archipelagos Institute was to 'babysit' this lone monk seal, who loved to hang out on the beach close to people.

Fishing for my study species during my thesis.

Counting animals during my time at the Kariega Game Reserve.

Our main camp overlooking the river.

There was room in the car for 3, but we were four... So we took turns riding in the back.

On our way to another baiting location, tired but excited!

Because I didn't have a lot of field experience at that time, I decided to take on some research assistant positions. The first one was baiting lions in Limpopo National Park (Mozambique) for a month, to investigate their abundance and distribution in the area. This experience was immediately very rough because we were camping within the park in unfenced areas, filtering river water to drink, making fires to eat, and having no electricity or signal. It felt like Survivor. I had to cut animals open to bait the lions (attract them to count or collar them), working mostly at night. I was confronted with the reality that lions in the area were very scarce, and that the relationship between the communities still living in the park and the lions was very different from mine: full of anger, fear, and uncertainty. I developed an interest in bridging the gap between animal conservation and community inclusion, as this seemed the only way to move forward. Special thanks to Hannes van Wyk who saved my life in the bush a couple of times and has been/is a pillar during my path towards a career in conservation.

My experience in Mozambique landed me my next position: research assistant in a project focusing on the reproductive behavior of baboons in Kasanka National Park, in Zambia. This was part of the fieldwork component of dr. Megan Petersdorf's thesis on sexual selection in the little-known Kinda baboon. We (four girls) camped in the park for a whole year, with only limited solar-powered electricity and no running water, but in a 'comfortable' camp. It even had a toilet! We followed the troop of baboons on foot for a year, knowing each adult individual by name and focusing on the behavior of swelling females and their (multiple) partners. This sparked my interest in animal decision-making and movement, as it was fascinating to see a whole troop of baboons with different interests move as one. It was truly a life-changing experience, and I grew a lot in that year as a person and scientist. One of our Zambian research rangers told me 'It's nice that you're not here to change things using a Western approach, and that you just want to help acquire knowledge and provide support'. That really stuck with me and became my approach during all my projects involving wildlife and people. I also greatly appreciate the mentorship given by dr. Petersdorf , who became one of my best friends to this day.

Watching the baboons cross the road.

When the baboons were up the trees (which luckily didn't happen often), this was the most comfortable position to observe them.

We were always accompanied by Zambian research rangers, from whom we not only received protection but also lots of knowledge and life lessons.

Collecting sediment samples along the Scheldt river in Antwerp.

Assisting in the collaring of an African Wild dog in Kruger.

My set up to spy on baboons at night (left) and doing some experiment to find out how far audio tags can hear sounds (right).

Even though I now had a lot of experience in the field, it was hard to find a research project that I was interested in and eligible for. To keep in touch with carnivore conservation, I became a volunteer guide at the Wolf Conservation Association in Belgium, which I still go to every time I'm in Belgium. In the meantime, to learn new skills and enhance the ones I already acquired, I processed and modeled data on estuarine ecological variables and sedimentation dynamics at the University of Antwerp back in Belgium for a year; I worked on modeling African wild movement collar data to investigate home range dynamics at the Max Planck Institute in Konstanz, Germany; and at that same institute I developed a pilot study to investigate the nocturnal predator-prey dynamics of Olive baboons and leopards. I was scientifically and morally supported by a great team of PhDs and postdocs, including dr. Shauhin Alavi, to which I owe my sanity and current coding skills, and is still one of my best friends to this day. But none of these projects ended up to be THE project. Until one day, I got contacted by Dr. Dürckheim with an opportunity I could not refuse ...

This takes us to my current project! I am doing my PhD at Stellenbosch University, in the AgriSciences department, and within the Wildlife Free To Roam research group with dr. Katharina von Dürckheim as my main supervisor. It took a while to develop the project, but I couldn't be happier with the result: the goal of my thesis is to investigate the distribution, habitat use and connectivity of lions and African wild dogs under varying environmental and anthropological pressures in Kruger National Park (South Africa) and Limpopo National Park (Mozambique). This project also includes a social chapter that will assess the perception that local communities have of lions and African wild dogs, the services and disservices these bring, and their vision of the future. Including them in conservation strategies is as crucial as investigating the processes underlying lion and wild dog populations dynamics.

I am very grateful to be collaborating with the Endangered Wildlife Trust, which provides crucial data for this project and amazing support from the team. Last year, I was lucky to participate in the spatial capture-recapture lion survey in the north of Kruger Park as an assistant; and this year, I am co-leading the same survey in the central parts of Kruger. Besides the importance of this project, I feel very blessed to be able to spend another 3 months driving around the park looking for lions and experiencing so many beautiful sightings. But on top of that, I'm finding so much more. Peace. Purpose. Happiness. I hope I can share this with as many people as I can, while contributing to the conservation of lions and wild dogs and to the well-being of residents.

Putting up camera traps for the 2023 survey.

EWT intern and my first-ever mentee, the amazing Lesego Mthethwa.

The 2024 team, with co-lead Marnus Roodbal (left), who is my biggest support in the field and on my project.