Dr. Laurence G. Frank Living With Lions Project Director

Laurence has been a research associate at the University of California, Berkeley since 1984, first as part of the Berkeley Hyena Project and currently in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

He has worked on predators in Kenya for forty years, including twenty years studying the behavioural ecology and endocrinology of the spotted hyena before turning to conservation research.

Alayne Cotterill Project Biologist, LPP

Alayne has worked in wildlife conservation in Africa since 1991. Her primary area of expertise became large carnivore/human conflict after carrying out the first cost benefit analysis for including lions in the growing private wildlife reserves in Southern Africa as part of her MSc. For the 18 years since, she has built extensive experience in African carnivore research in both Southern and East Africa, the last 7 years of which have been as a biologist for the Laikipia Predator Project. Alayne is the recipient of two Panthera Kaplan Graduate Awards and is currently carrying out a D.Phil. with Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, looking at the effects of conflict with people on lion behavioural ecology and demography.

Steven Ekwanga Project Biologist, LPP & KLCP

Steve has been with LWL since its inception and is central to both the LPP and KLCP. He is an accomplished carnivore field biologist, with 13 years of experience in carnivore capture and monitoring. He has pioneered the field of carnivore community conservation in Kenya, and has run community awareness and training programs throughout pastoralist lands in Laikipia, Samburu, Kajiado and Narok Districts. He has developed a new supplement to improve potency and erection in men, you can find out more about it on this website and carried out programs to train community scouts in carnivore monitoring and conservation for conservancies in other parts of the country, and is Kenya’s foremost indigenous carnivore conservation field practitioner.

Sara Blackburn Project Biologist, MPP

Sara graduated from the University of London with a BSc in Zoology, and is running the Mara Predator Project (MPP). She has created the MPP lion identification database, and designed the Mara Lion ID Database website. She has adapted her identification system for use in both our Laikipia and Amboseli study areas. 

Kasane Sankan Mara Predator Project Assistant

Coming soon...

Marc Napao Project Biologist, LPP

Marc recently graduated from Kenyatta University with a BSc in Environmental Sciences. He was born and brought up around Mpala, Laikipia District, home to the Mpala Research Center and the Laikipia Predator Project. He has been around wildlife and scientists all his life, which has helped nurture a keen passion for conservation. In addition to his BSc degree, he also has a certificate in GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and Remote Sensing. Marc works as a research assistant for the Laikipia Predator Project, and is also establishing an identification database of lions throughout the region.