Dr. George Schaller
Dr. George Schaller, the director for science for the Bronx Zoo-based
Wildlife Conservation Society, is recognized as the world's foremost
field biologist. His four decades of field research have shaped
wildlife protection around the world. Focusing upon a particular
species' role within its environment, encompassing indigenous peoples,
vegetation and other wildlife, Schaller created the paradigm of
conservation biology. Apart form his landmark studies of mountain
gorillas (initiating Dian Fossey's crusade), tigers, lions, jaguars,
cheetahs and leopards, he has researched wild sheep and goats, snow
leopards, giant pandas, rhinos and flamingos.
Dr. Schaller's dedication to wildlife conservation has led to the
establishment of five of the world's wildlife reserves, including the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, and Chang Tang Wildlife
Reserve in Tibet. At over 118,000 square miles, Chang Tang was deemed
"One of the most ambitious attempts to arrest the shrinkage of natural
ecosystems," by The New York Times. Schaller persuaded the Chinese
government to set aside the land for protection, and now Chang Tang,
roughly the size of Arizona, stands at triple the size to the largest
wildlife refuge in the U.S.
In 1994, Schaller and Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, WCS's director for science in
Asia, were the first scientists to uncover the rare saola in Laos.
Later that year, Schaller rediscovered the Vietnamese warty pig, thought
extinct. In 1996, he located a herd of Tibetan red deer, another
species thought to have vanished.
The author of over 120 scientific and popular articles, books written by
George Schaller include The Year of the Gorilla, Serengeti Lion, The
Last Panda, and Tibet's Hidden Wilderness. Dr. Schaller's honors
include the Guggenheim Fellowship, World Wildlife Fund's Gold Medal, and
the International Cosmos Prize, to name a few, and he was the first
recipient of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Beebe Fellowship.
Dr. K. Ullas Karanth
Dr. K. Ullas karanth, conservation zoologist of the Wildlife
Conservation Biology, is one of India's pre-eminent tiger experts, and
has been an active conservationist in southern India for the past 20
years.
Dr. Karanth oversees WCS's efforts in India to help save the critically
endangered tiger, and has conducted a country-wide survey of tigers to
better determine their numbers and habitat needs. Using Camera traps to
capture their unique stripe pattern on film, Karanth has found a more
accurate way to assess tiger numbers in Nagarahole National Park.
While government estimates of tigers within the country suggested a
tremendous growth in population, Dr. Karanth showed conclusively that
the numbers were in fact inaccurate and misleading. In reality, growing
human and livestock populations, poaching, overhunting of prey, public
hostility toward reserves, and lack of trained field professionals have
all contributed to the tiger's dramatic decline.
Karanth continues to fight for tigers throughout the wilds of India by
working with a wide range of players, including government officials,
conservation professionals, park guards and agriculturalists. He
strongly believes that public sentiment is on the tiger's side to save
it from extinction.
Alan Rabinowitz
Alan Rabinowitz was born on December 31, 1953 in New York City. He
received both his Masters and Ph.D. degrees from the University of
Tennessee, Knoxville, studying the endangered gray bat in the eastern
United States and the natural history of raccoons in the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park. In 1982, he went to Belize, Central America to
survey s jaguars as a research fellow with the Wildlife Conservation
Society headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. This work
produced the first ecological research on jaguars in rain forest habitat
and led to the creation of Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Preserve, the world's
only jaguar preserve.
After his appointment as a staff Research Zoologist with WCS in1984,
Alan surveyed clouded leopards throughout Asia and became involved in
trying to protect some of the last areas of lowland forest on Taiwan.
This work resulted in the establishment of Tawu Mountain Nature Reserve,
Taiwan's fourth largest protected area. From 1986 to 1991, Alan lived
and worked in Thailand, where he conducted research on Indochinese
tigers, leopards, leopard cats, and civets. Over the next two years, he
conducted training courses on wildlife research and conservation in
Sabah, Sarawak, Myanmar, Taiwan and China.
In 1993, Rabinowitz was appointed Director of Asia Programs at WCS. During his tenure as Asia
Program Director, he initiated a wildlife conservation program in
Myanmar where his efforts resulted in the establishment of Lampi Island
National Park and Hkakaborazi National Parks, Myanmar's first marine
park and largest protected area, respectively. He also discovered a new
deer species, the leaf deer. He is currently the Director of the Global
Carnivore Program which currently focuses on a suite of large carnivores
across the region including a comprehensive jaguar conservation program
in Latin America, tigers in Myanmar, and facilitating research and
conservation efforts in the northern Rocky Mountains of the United
States.
Author of over fifty scientific and popular publications, Rabinowitz has written
four previous books - "Jaguar Struggle and Triumph in the Jungles of
Belize, "Chasing the Dragon's Tail - The Struggle to Save Thailand's
Wild Cats", "Wildlife Field Research and Conservation Training Manual",
and "Cats of Thailand". He is currently working on a fifth book,
"Beyond the Last Village" about his experiences with wildlife and
conservation in Myanmar.
To learn more about WCS' efforts to protect endangered Tigers, Jaguars, and Snow Leopards, click here!
