Case for Species ConservationMeet Your Moderators


Chris Thouless	Chris Thouless is currently Senior Programme Officer for the Species Survival Commssion. He has worked in Asia and Africa for the last twenty years, and has been based in Kenya for a large part of this time. His main expertise is as a wildlife biologist, working on large mammals, particularly elephants, but he also worked as tourism advisor to the Namibian government, and recently supervised the rebuilding of the Nairobi National Museum.
Onnie Byers	Onnie Byers is Executive Director of the IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group. She earned a PhD in reproductive physiology but has spent the past 15 years designing and facilitating action planning processes to guide the conservation of threatened species around the world.
Caroline Lees	Caroline Lees spent the last ten years coordinating the Australasian Species Management Program - an initiative bringing zoos together to increase the sustainability and conservation value of their animal collections through the application of scientific principles and collaborative processes. On behalf of the regional zoo association (ARAZPA) and the Tasmanian Government, Caroline is currently coordinating a captive insurance population of Tasmanian devils - a species currently threatened with extinction due to a unique facial tumour disease. Caroline has a background in conservation biology, in particular the biology and management of small populations.
Jonathan Wilcken	Jonathan Wilcken is Director of Auckland Zoo and a member of the Steering Committee of the IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group. He has worked with zoos across the Australasian region for the past 15 years, with a key focus of his work being developing sustainable conservation breeding programs for threatened species.