Dr Bibi Linden MSc (Würzburg, Germany), PhD (Venda, South Africa)

I studied at the universities of Mainz and Würzburg in Germany, where I specialised in Tropical Biology and Animal Ecology. In 2006 I began field-based research studying seed dispersal by free-ranging samango monkeys (a forest-dwelling primate) in the Soutpansberg mountains, South Africa. This became the topic of my MSc which I acquired in 2008 with distinction. Residing in South Africa for 18 years, I worked in various educational and academic positions including four years lecturing Conservation Biology at the University of Venda and eight years managing the Academic Programme at a biological field research station, Lajuma Research Centre. In 2020 I received my PhD in Zoology from the University of Venda studying the distribution, population status and conservation of samango monkeys, and subsequently held a three-year Postdoctoral Research position at the university’s Chair for Biodiversity, Value and Change. I joined the Department of Life Sciences at Aberystwyth University as a Lecturer in Applied Conservation Biology in February 2024.

My research approach is highly inter-disciplinary and collaborative, focusing on Conservation Biology and Ecology of terrestrial mammals, with a particular but not exclusive emphasis on African primates. I have a strong interest in how anthropogenic activities impact wildlife populations in rapidly changing land-use matrices and, how these impacts can be mitigated within the fields of Linear Infrastructure Ecology, Human-Wildlife Interactions and Spatial Ecology. My work has a strong public participation and education component, also informing conservation strategies and species Red List assessments as it is important to me that my research is directly translatable into applied conservation action by communities and environmental practitioners.