HANNAH S. MUMBY
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Having conducted research on long-lived mammals for almost fifteen years and focused my efforts on elephants for over ten, I'm very fortunate to be leading this diverse group, and to be incorporating other study systems. Please read more about me in other sections of the website, including the Hannah CV, elephant research, boar research and publications pages. I'll be making updates about the group and our projects in the blog section. I'll also be adding a teaching page, where I'll upload resources I use for my courses.
YIFU WANG
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
Yifu graduated from McGill University with a bachelor’s degree majoring in Environmental Biology in 2015. In the same year, she enrolled in University of Cambridge as a PhD candidate. Her PhD project focused on understanding pangolin trade and markets in China to better conserve this group of highly trafficked mammals.
Yifu’s postdoc project at HKU will investigate the conflict between humans and wild boars in Hong Kong. The reasons why more wild boar appear in urban settings, how people perceive the nuisances they cause and the potential management plans for this species will be the focus of this project. The outputs will potentially feed into real-life policies to manage wild boar and human interactions in Hong Kong.
Email: yw393@hku.hk
ESTELLE MEAUX
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
Estelle graduated from the University of Strasbourg in 2015 with a Master’s in Ethology, and then she received her doctoral certificate in Behavioural Ecology from Guangxi University in 2022. Her main research interests focus on the social behaviours of group living species, with a large diversity of questions and model studies.
From cooperative behaviours in parrots and macaques to acoustic communication in small passerines, Estelle has conducted both observational and experimental studies in captive conditions as well as in the field. She recently studied the social competition between breeding individuals in laboratory rats housed in a novel semi-natural environment, before joining the lab to study food manipulation in the highly social animal that is the elephants.
SAGARIKA PHALKE
PHD STUDENT
Sagarika has an MSc in the Psychology of human-animal interactions from the University of Stirling, UK. Her focus lies in understanding and improving conditions for wild and captive elephants which can experience differing levels of welfare due to their interactions with humans. Therefore, by working with humans that have an impact on elephants, she hopes to create an inclusive approach to elephant welfare and conservation. Her long-term goal is to look at improving welfare conditions across the different captive elephant management systems in India, through work with mahouts and the administration and also work with local communities that are affected by negative human-elephant interactions.
Having worked for a grassroot organization in India, her experience in the field involves research on captive elephant welfare in extensive systems of management and community- based initiatives in dealing with negative interactions with elephants.
Email: u3007068@connect.hku.hk
HANNAH TILLEY
PHD STUDENT
Tilley is a conservation biologist with a passion for investigating behavioural ecology using different systems. She graduated with a degree in Zoology and went on to complete a masters of research at University College London, before undertaking different behavioural projects with birds in Hong Kong and bats in Panama.
Tilley is currently a PhD student with the lab working on how elephant sensory systems impact behaviour. This will require extensive time at our field site in Nepal; training elephants on behavioural tasks and using complex statistical methods to analyse results.
Email: htilley@connect.hku.hk
TERESA SANTOS
PHD CANDIDATE
Teresa completed her Master's degree in 2017 on Evolutionary and Developmental Biology at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. For her thesis, she used population genetics to study African elephants across two protected areas in South Africa, under the supervision of Dr Hannah Mumby and Dr Carlos Fernandes. She previously participated in molecular ecology projects at the University of Sheffield, UK, and the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Her research interests lie in molecular ecology, population genetics, evolution, and conservation genetics of mammals.
Email: teresaInsantos@campus.ul.pt
SAMMI LO
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
Sammi completed her bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Biodiversity; and is presently a master’s student of Environmental Management at the University of Hong Kong. She is interested in the integration of science and policies on managing the environment. For her undergraduate dissertation, she compared the effectiveness of different coastal ecological engineering approaches. Sammi also has a background in mammal studies, having interned at the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, studying the distribution of terrestrial mammal species in Hong Kong.
She is currently also a research assistant at the ABEC lab, working on human-wild boar interactions and the diet of wild boar in Hong Kong. Her research interests include behavioural ecology of mammals and the application of ecology to environmental management.
Email: u3537088@connect.hku.hk
XUEFEI YAO
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
Xuefei is currently a research assistant at the ABEC lab. Her main research interests are how environmental and anthropologic change impacts ecosystem structure and functions and how wildlife survives and adapts to such a human-dominated landscape. She is currently using the wild boar in Hong Kong as a study case.
DANHE YANG
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
Danhe is a cultural anthropologist interested in the political economy of biodiversity and conservation. She graduated with her Ph.D. in anthropology at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), China. Her dissertation examines the role of the black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys (a.k.a Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys) in Southwest China and, in particular, how they have been intertwined with human society and reshaping social and natural landscapes over the past century. And she has eight years of experience conducting ethnographic research on the human-primates interface and primates conservation.
Danhe will focus on the social and cultural aspects of the buffalo project at HKU. By using social methods such as interviews and participant observation, she will trace how and why the wildlife in Hong Kong plays out in political and popular culture on an anthropological account.
Email: yangdhe@hku.hk
IRIS WOO
VOLUNTEER
Iris completed her bachelor's degree in Biodiversity and Conservation at Brigham Young University, USA. She has a background in animal behavioural studies, conducting studies at the Ocean Park, Hong Kong and National Taiwan Normal University, studying cooperative activities in dolphins, and fighting ability among damselfly.
She currently volunteers on the elephant sensory project and looks forward to contributing to the other projects within the lab.
ERIC LEE
TECHNICIAN
Eric provides invaluable research support and technical knowledge to all of our team. He also supports student teaching and and provides technical support to other faculty members.
COLLABORATORS
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Dr Alan McElligott, City University of Hong Kong
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Dr Kate Flay, City University of Hong Kong
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Dr Josh Plotnik - Hunter College, City University of New York
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Dr Lucy Bates - University of Sussex
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Dr Janine Brown - Smithsonian Institute
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Dr Michelle Henley - Elephants Alive
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Prof Andrew Balmford - University of Cambridge
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Prof George Wittemyer - Colorado State University
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Dr Deborah Dawson - University of Sheffield
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Mélody Busuttil - Université de Neuchâtel
ALUMNI
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Cecile Sarabian - Former postdoctoral researcher
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Katherine Yeung - Former research assistant
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Derek Murphy - Former postdoctoral researcher
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Calvin Ma - Former research assistant
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Mo Man Yi - Former research assistant
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Cheuk Yiu Cheung - Former research assistant
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Kaja Weirucka - Former Post-doc working on elephant vocalisations and olfactory preferences. Now post-doc at the University of Zurich.
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Annaëlle Surreault - Former research assistant
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Sylvia Lam - Former volunteer working on human-boar interactions in Hong Kong
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Caitlin Black - Former Post-doc funded by my Branco Weiss Fellowship to measure tusk size, body size and age from photographs, now Post-doc at the University of Amsterdam.
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Ronny Makukule - Former Field Assistant, now a researcher at Elephants Alive.
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Amy Morris-Drake - Former Research Assistant on communication, now PhD student at the University of Bristol.
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Jessica Wilmot - Former Field Assistant, now Master's student at Central European University.
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Christin Winter - Former Field Assistant. Now working for an elephant non-profit in Namibia.
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Sam Yue - Former Research Assistant on the wild boar project and continued collaborator. Now based in Canada.