About

I am the Lambert Reader in Human-Wildlife Coexistence at Birkbeck University of London, where I direct the MSc in Environment and Sustainability. 
 

I grew up on crocodile research stations in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I have MA degrees in literature (University of Cape Town), and the history of science and society (Birkbeck University of London) and a D.Phil (doctorate) in modern history (University of Oxford). Following junior research fellowships at Oxford and Imperial College London (Conservation Science), I co-directed the MSc in conservation science at Imperial, before taking up my current bequest lectureship at Birkbeck in 2016. 

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I am also affiliated with the Zoological Society of London; School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; Coexistence Consortium, India; and the Centre for World Environmental History, University of Sussex.

 

I'm proud to continue a family tradition of writing on nature and its conservation, following my father Tony's books Discoveries of a Crocodile Man and Mashesha: The making of a game ranger (among others), and my mother Elsa's botanical field guides for the Natal Flora Trust she founded, and her illustrated co-authored guide to gardening with South African indigenous plants. My aunt Creina Alcock (nee Bond) has written books on the Okavango and Antarctica and edited African Wildlife, my uncle William Bond has written books on wildfires and open ecosystems, and my grandfather John Bond was an environmental journalist and who wrote a history of English-speaking South Africans. My  brother Thomas Pooley recently published The Land is Sung: Zulu Performances and the Politics of Place. 

 

I do much of my conservation work through the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) specialist groups on Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence, and Crocodiles. I chair working groups on coexisting with wild animals for both specialist groups. I am also working with the Zoological Society of London on hidden aspects of ZSL history. 

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In addition to a well-cited corpus of academic publications, I have shared my ideas and findings widely online and on popular print media, radio and television. ​

 

I am passionate about raising awareness about the environmental challenges we face to as wide an audience as possible, while also celebrating the wonder and mystery of the natural world in which we humans are inextricably entangled. There has never been a more important time for doing so.