We were delighted to welcome Professor Amy Dickman for our third Mitre Lecture of the academic year.
A Professor of Biology at Oxford University, Amy has spent over two decades researching and working to save lions, leopards, and other big carnivores from extinction.
In front of a large audience in the Mitre Theatre, Amy deftly wove her own fascinating life story together with reflections on her conservation work – having turned down a place to read Veterinary Medicine at Cambridge, she then trained as a zoologist before moving to live and work in sub-Saharan Africa, where she still spends extended periods of time.
Amid spine-tingling anecdotes about waking up with a lion on top of her tent and being hospitalised by an unusually aggressive cheetah, Amy’s principal reflection was that understanding, listening to, and communicating with the tribal communities in Namibia, Tanzania, and Kenya has been the most significant factor in the extraordinary success of her conservation projects, which have saved hundreds of big cats while improving access to healthcare, education, and economic opportunities for the communities with which they co-exist.
Amy’s lecture was followed by a brilliant Q&A session, skilfully chaired by L6 students Tom and Melanie, in which the audience quizzed Amy about her views on trophy hunting, government action, and the role that AI is playing in conservation.
We were delighted to receive a signed copy of Amy’s dual-language English and Swahili children’s book Darem the Lion Defender, which she co-wrote with her colleague Alayne Cotterill to present positive role modelling for children growing up in communities where big cats live. The copy is now available for students to read in the Library.
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