Tomas Pickering, Ph.D.

Tomas Pickering joined San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance in 2021, as a Researcher with the Community Engagement team. During graduate school, he studied rangeland ecology, drought, and pastoralism (livestock-centered livelihoods) in northern Kenya, in areas practicing community-based conservation.

Tomas' work now is focused on issues of human-wildlife conflict and coexistence with Kenyan wildlife, such as giraffes, leopards, and black rhinos. Together with our Kenyan partners, he investigates people's attitudes, motivations, and actions toward wildlife to develop interventions that improve benefits and reduce risks for communities conserving wildlife.