Dr. Elizabeth le Roux, Ph.D., is a large mammal Park Ecologist at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in South Africa who studies how working rangelands can connect isolated protected areas and allow wildlife to move across the landscape. Her research also examines how large mammals shape vegetation and nutrient distribution, and how cattle grazing can create natural firebreaks across the savanna.

As pressure from climate change intensifies, le Roux’s work addresses a central conservation challenge: maintaining ecologically intact savanna landscapes while accommodating the needs of pastoral people who depend on them. Her research strengthens the scientific case for policies and funding that support both biodiversity and pastoral traditions by demonstrating the conservation value of working rangelands.

Using tools like LIDAR scanning, temperature loggers and camera traps, le Roux and her team research the movement of jackals, bush babies, mongoose and other animals to study how grazing affects the habitats of these species. In 2022, she won the Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer research grant for her work in “cattle corridors,” which explores how species struggle to migrate across wild habitats that have become increasingly disconnected from each other by agriculture and areas of ecosystem degradation.