Saeideh Esmaeili truly is a rennaissance woman of southwest Asian mammals, working on goitered gazelle, Indian gazelle, sand cat, and Asiatic cheetah before completing a superb dissertation on the ecological and socio-economic correlates surrounding the migrations of a globally-endangered equid, the onager.

Channeling John Wayne (or Jeff Bridges, if you prefer), Saeideh personified true grit: she once navigated a financial transfer between five(!) countries to support the first GPS collaring effort of an ungulate in her home country of Iran. At a postdoc at Colorado State University, she now partners with the IUCN Equid Specialist Group, employing her talents in movement modeling to conserve equids across the globe.

Current position: Research Scientist, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University

Saeideh's website

I grew up in a small village in central Kenya. At the time, wildlife featured commonly in the forests near home, but as agriculture expanded and the forests were cleared, many of these animals disappeared. Watching this transformation inspired me to explore ways humans and wildlife can coexist.

Sarah Weiner was the latest in an illustrious succession of UHURU project managers. In a karmic twist of fate, she conducted independent research with Felicia Keesing, Jake's first mentor in Kenya. Side note: Sarah's threshold for pain stemming from pouched mouse bites is the stuff of legends.

Current position: Funding and Reporting Manager, African Parks Network

Scott Carpenter was the project manager extraordinnaire for the big-headed ant research, and conducted work on how invasion influences nest success of social weavers to boot. In this photo, he bows in deference to a curious silverback.

Current position: PhD student, Yale University

Simon Lima (pictured here after a trying stint in Tsavo National Park) was an invaluable member of our research team between 2004 and 2015, and triumphantly returned in 2019 to assist with Dedan's work. He now works with Dik-dik Sam. He is a guru with GPS, wildlife captures, and radio-telemetry, and he can spot giraffes at over 500 km (pun intended, to be sure).

Stephen Kinyua was the inaugural project leader on the UHURU small-mammal sampling. Steve was advised by Jake and Geoff Wahungu at Moi University and now serves as a Project Manager for Wildlife Cybercrime for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Current position: Project Manager, International Fund for Animal Welfare