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Careers in Zoo Education >> Gorilla
Researcher
 Gorilla
Researcher
Research coordinator, Nouabalé-Ndoki Project,
Republic of Congo, WCS
 “Pursue your interest – contact people, places, and projects for more information. Be prepared to work hard and fund-raise at the beginning, but in the end, it will be your commitment that shines through and gets results.”
Emma spent many of her childhood years glued to natural history documentaries on television. A program on Antarctica sparked her to join a campaign to conserve this last true wilderness. This led her to join a variety of different conservation organizations, many of which she is still a member of today. After she graduated from high school, she worked tough jobs and publicized her efforts through local radio and newspapers to raise funds to spend a year as a volunteer. Emma raised enough money to travel to Uganda and take part in a biodiversity survey for one year. In Uganda, Emma saw chimpanzees in an area thought to be lacking them. It was the first time she had seen great apes in the wild, and she quickly became hooked.
At college, Emma studied zoology and regularly searched for volunteer fieldwork opportunities. After she earned her degree, she went to graduate school and got her Ph.D. She went back to study chimpanzees in Uganda and made it a point to contact the local media to increase public awareness of great apes and conservation. Following her Ph.D., she got a job directing the gorilla research program at Mbeli Bai in the Republic of Congo where she has learned about the variety of conservation issues now facing apes and other animals in Africa.
At Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, Emma studies gorillas in the wild and trains Congolese researchers about the gorillas and their habitat so they will have the expertise and incentive to protect their country's natural resources for many years to come. Emma gets enormous satisfaction from contributing toward the protection of one of the last intact places in Africa. And, she gets enormous enjoyment from just being in the rainforest and observing the gorillas and other animals, plants, and birds.
Visit the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) 's Work on the Wild Side for more information about wildlife-friendly careers. Work on the Wild Side is part of WCS's Teens for Planet Earth website.
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