ALANA WILLIS O’DWYER
I am currently an intern at CERU and will soon be starting my BSc Honours in Zoology. My work focuses on population management using contraceptives for adult female elephants. I investigate the implications for elephant demography in a fenced reserve, with a specific focus on vital rates and transient population dynamics. With this project, we aim to improve our understanding of how contraception affects long-term population dynamics for an enclosed elephant population.
Elephants in fenced reserves also significantly influence ecosystem dynamics, and here I examine their impact on the surrounding environment and how we can better manage their localised effects. Working closely with reserves enables me to address questions that align with management objectives. Providing scientifically supported evidence to inform conservation strategies and decision-making is an important part of our research program on elephants.
