 | Axel Moehrenschlager
Head of the Centre for Conservation Research
Dr. Moehrenschlager joined the Calgary Zoo in 1999, following his PhD work at Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. His work focused on coyotes, red foxes, and on Canada's most endangered carnivore, the Swift Fox. He is a member of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Canid and Reintroduction Specialist Groups, co-chair of the Canadian Swift Fox Recovery Team, and also sits on numerous conservation committees. Dr. Moehrenschlager is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the University of Calgary's Ecology Division and a Senior Research Associate Fellow at Oxford University's Department of Zoology. Previous field research on wood bison, wolves, red squirrels and peregrine falcons founded his strong interest in restoration ecology, which is reflected in all of the Centre's projects today.
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Breana McKnight
Endangered Species Researcher
Breana was the recipient of the 2008 Canadian Conservation Research Fellowship. Breana has recently received two degrees from the University of Calgary, one in Ecology and the second with Honors in Primatology. Her extensive field experience has lead her to remote locations around the world, including studying howler monkeys in Belize, ecosystem dynamics in Kenya and community based conservation at the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary in Ghana. Here at the Centre, Breana has been involved in several research projects including the study on Black-tailed Prairie Dogs in Grasslands National Park and the investigation of Northern Leopard Frog populations in Alberta. These projects have allowed Breana to gain valuable hands-on experience and expand her knowledge of conservation.
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Lea Randall
Endangered Species Researcher
Lea has a Master's degree from the University of Calgary in forest ecology and a BSc in Biology from the University of Victoria. The primary focus of her MSc research was the effects of forest disturbance on bats of the Yukon. She has worked on a variety of animals including bats and other small mammals, birds, insects, wolverine and pine marten. Prior to joining the Centre for Conservation Research, Lea worked for the Yukon Department of Environment where she gained experience in wildlife and resource management. She has a keen interest in engaging the public in wildlife and conservation issues. She is enthusiastic to apply her skills to the Northern Leopard Frog, Swift Fox and Burrowing Owl recovery projects.
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Jill Hockaday
Conservation Research Coordinator
Jill joined the Centre for Conservation Research in April 2008. Before joining the CCR, she completed a B.Sc. in Geography from the University of Calgary. Her background also includes Communications in the areas of agriculture, food and environment. In addition to providing administrative and coordination support for various Research projects within the Centre, Jill is charged with the task of relaying the Conservation Research message to the general public in a creative and engaging manner. Jill is also a member of the Canadian Black-footed Ferret Recovery Communications Team.
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 | Donna Sheppard
Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary Advisor
Donna has joined the Centre for Conservation Research through collaborationwith the Zoo’s Conservation Outreach Department. The two departments are pursuing a publication partnership aimed at documenting evidence of success in community based conservation initiatives such as the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary. Through the Conservation Outreach Department, The Calgary Zoo provides financial and technical support to a number of responsible Canadian and international conservation initiatives. The Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary is an exemplary international grassroots enterprise deserving of this outreach support. Donna has been with the Conservation Outreach Department since 1999, working with some of the Zoo’s international conservation partnerships. As a result, Donna spends very little time on Canadian soil. During her first international placement with the Zoo, she spent 4 years at the Guyana Zoo in South America as part of the Calgary Zoo’s sister zoo program. Then in 2004, Donna moved to Ghana, West Africa to be an advisor to the Wechiau Community Hippo
Sanctuary. More recently, Donna’s role was expanded to include technical and research support to similar communalconservation approaches in Ghana involving the Western sitatunga and the West African manatee. Donna holds an MA in Physical Anthropology from the University of Calgary where she studied the comparative ecology of redtail monkeys living in logged and unlogged forest compartments in Uganda, East Africa.
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Jana McPherson
Conservation Ecologist
Dr. McPherson is a conservation ecologist interested in documenting, understanding and mitigating human impacts on the distribution of individual species, biodiversity and ecosystem function. She joined the Centre for Conservation Research in January 2000 to assist an assessment of the socio-economic and biological outcomes of the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary, a zoo-supported community-based conservation initiative in Ghana. Her expertise lies in modelling the occurrence and abundance of species in space and time, and in developing tools and protocols to analyse data that challenge the assumptions underlying most conventional statistical methods. She is currently applying these skills to an analysis of human impacts on the composition of reef fish communities in the Pacific islands, work she began prior to joining the Calgary Zoo during postdoctoral studies at Dalhousie University. Her doctoral studies at the University of Oxford examined how distribution models based on satellite-derived environmental data could enhance field observations of birds in southern and eastern Africa, and thus contribute to the conservation of that region’s more than 1,500 avian species.
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