Alison Greggor, Ph.D.

Dr. Alison Greggor serves San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance as a Researcher in Recovery Ecology. Alison is broadly interested in connecting research on animal behavior and learning to conservation management, and in bringing evidence-based science to practices that utilize animal behavior. In her research, she focuses on the links between animal learning and temperament, and their effect on behavioral competency and post-reintroduction survival.

Alison’s main responsibility is to oversee research projects that will contribute to the successful reintroduction of ‘Alala. In particular, she will be developing robust pre-release training and identifying captive predictors of wild behaviors. She will also be involved in other reintroduction programs, including working with the Aga in the Mariana Islands.

Alison earned bachelor’s degrees in Spanish language and Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, with an emphasis on animal behavior and learning. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates-Cambridge scholar. Her dissertation examined the differences between urban and rural populations of wild jackdaws and how corvids respond to ecological novelty. Alison served as a postdoctoral research associate at Dartmouth College, where she investigated learning mechanisms in intertidal hermit crab species. She is a member of the Animal Behavior Society’s Conservation Committee, and has advised the Convention of Migratory Species’ Scientific Council as an expert in animal culture.