Hariyo Wibisono, M.S.

Hariyo Wibisono, known as Beebach, serves San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance as a Research Fellow in Population Sustainability. Beebach’s main objective is to fill knowledge gaps in large carnivore ecology, especially large cats. His research encompasses a wide range of questions concerning the ecology, behavior, and genetics of wild large cat populations in response to anthropogenic factors.  His work has been of key assistance to the Government of Indonesia in improving their conservation interventions.

In 2007, Beebach set the scientific standard for the first ever Sumatra-wide tiger and large mammal surveys conducted by nine major NGO partners.  He is currently leading the second survey to provide the Indonesian government with guidelines for future interventions to better protect tigers, key other large mammals, and their habitats. Beebach’s work includes Sumatran landscape connectivity, habitat usage in multiple use landscapes, diets using novel genetic methods, elucidation of Sumatran tiger life histories, and an island-wide population re-assessment using time series camera trap datasets collated from various partners.

Beebach earned his master’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. As an active member of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group since 2010, he maintains a strong research interest in the population ecology of large cats. Beebach has more than 25 years of professional experience in applied sciences for large mammal conservation in Indonesia. He has spent much of his career working with community members, fellow conservation professionals, and government forestry staff to explore innovative ways to conserve wildlife and their habitats.