Dr Rajan Amin

Dr Rajan Amin is a senior wildlife biologist at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). He has worked at ZSL for over 25 years. His interests centre around conservation biology, with an emphasis on science-based conservation management of some of the world's most threatened species. His work spans many aspects from wildlife research and monitoring to wildlife health, species recovery planning and capacity building.Species conservationRaj is involved in researching factors threatening species and developing a strong evidence base for conservation planning. He has helped with a number of national conservation programmes including more recently Kenya rhino, elephant and hirola; South Africa blue, wattled and grey-crowned cranes; greater one-horn rhino and Bengal tiger recovery in Nepal; the Gangetic river dolphin in the Brahmaputra; threatened and endemic species in the coastal forests of Kenya and rain forests of Central and West Africa; India tiger and forest habitats; Russia Amur tiger; Sumatran tiger; desert antelopes in Saudi Arabia and cape leopard in South Africa. This work has also included development of species conservation strategies. Raj has worked closely with national agencies including the Kenya Wildlife Service, Saudi Wildlife Authority, Nepal Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and the Wildlife Institute of India.Wildlife monitoring tools and techniquesRaj has researched novel approaches and tools for wildlife monitoring and management. A number of these tools and techniques have been developed and implemented in partnership with Government organisations. This includes Kifaru for Kenya rhino metapopulation management and M-STrIPES implemented across all tiger reserves in India. He was also a founding member of SMART, a protected area management tool being rolled out globally.Raj has also been working in the field of camera trapping for a number of years. He spearheaded the development of the ZSL camera trap analysis package for managing and analysing large volumes of camera-trap images being generated globally. He has also helped in wildlife surveys across a range of sites and habitats in Africa, Asia and Europe.Biodiversity status and species prioritizationRaj helped develop the Living Planet Index and the Red List Index. He is also helping in developing more efficient approaches for national species status assessments. He worked on Nepal’s Red List Programme developing the first detailed Red Data book for birds (871 species – six volumes) and mammals (207 species).Teaching and training programmesRaj is part of a team that initiated the Wildlife Health Bridge programme to improve the expertise and knowledge of wildlife health professionals in bio-diverse low-medium income countries. The programme now collaborates in four Masters’ level courses: MSc Wild Animal Health, MSc Wild Animal Biology, MSci Wild Animal Biology, MVetSci Conservation Medicine, with a fifth course for biologists in the planning stages. Over 600 wildlife health professionals from 65 countries have graduated from WHB programme, and these have been brought together in a knowledge exchange network, Wild Animal Alumni.Raj also helped develop the EDGE field training course and the ZSL ecological methodology summer field course in Mongolia. He has facilitated a number of workshops in Africa and Asia particularly in developing and implementing monitoring programmes, national strategies and Red Lists. He has co-supervised a number of MSc and PhD students over the years. A list of his more recent publications are provided below.