Alexander Richard Braczkowski

  • Research Fellow at the Centre for Planetary Health and Resilient Conservation Group, Griffith University
The two lion coalition of Jacob and Tibu, photographed a few weeks after their swim. Orin Cornille

Lions in a Uganda park make a perilous journey across a 1.5km stretch of water: study suggests the drive is to find mates

Male lions are making the risky swims, braving crocodiles and hippos, so as to find females.
Alex Braczkowski/supplied

Losing a calf to wolves in Sweden hurts. But if lions take one in Uganda, a farming family’s income is gone

Developing countries suffer the most in the conflict between large carnivores and humans. We need better financial incentives for these communities to make sure these iconic predators are protected.
Jimmy Kisembo, a Uganda Wildlife Authority ranger looks up at a lion on his daily monitoring patrol in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda. Alex Braczkowski

What COVID‑19 travel bans have done to conservation tourism in Africa

Africa’s public and private protected areas took a massive blow from the collapse in tourism because of the pandemic. Tourism is a key source of funding for managing protected areas.
A jaguar skin lies sprawled across a fence post in one of the Brazilian Pantanal’s many cow ranches. This individual was shot by a rancher after a cow was found dead on the ranch. Steve Winter

Why paying people to tolerate wildlife is not the magic bullet for conservation

Compensation for losses from wildlife is an increasingly popular conservation intervention. However, a recent review cautions its use.
With tourism revenue drying up due to COVID-19, the debate surrounding trophy hunting of wildlife species like African lions is more relevant now than before. Alex Braczkowski

COVID‑19, Africa’s conservation and trophy hunting dilemma

A new study evaluates what South African landowners who run trophy hunting operations would do in the event of a hunting ban.
A young lion cub rests in the branches of a large euphorbia tree in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area. Alex Braczkowski

Getting closer to a much better count of Africa’s lions

New science shows that estimates of the African lion numbers are underpinned by weak methods. But several new studies from Kenya and Uganda show that lions can be counted robustly.
Alex Braczkowski

Un esfuerzo pionero para salvar al pangolín de la extinción

Los pangolines son comercializados ilegalmente, están vinculados a la pandemia del coronavirus y se encuentran en vías de extinción en algunas zonas. Por eso es vital reintroducir esta especie amenazada en la naturaleza.
Alex Braczkowski

Back from extinction: a world first effort to return threatened pangolins to the wild

Pangolins are illegally traded, linked to the coronavirus pandemic and driven to extinction in some areas. That’s why it’s vital to reintroduce this threatened species back into the wild.
Tigers have whisker hairs even on their front legs and chin! thedigme/flickr

Curious Kids: why do tigers have whiskers?

Whiskers are not just ordinary hairs. They are thicker and go deeper into the tiger’s skin and send messages to its brain about what is happening in the world around it.
The world’s biggest burn of illegal ivory. Daniel Stiles

Ivory up in flames, but who really noticed? How messages on elephant poaching might be missed

The destruction of a massive haul of illegal ivory was supposed to send a message to poachers and those who trade in the tusks. Did they notice, or can the ivory be used to help elephant conservation?
Wild leopards in the Indian city of Mumbai may be helping to save people’s lives. Steve Winter/National Geographic

Leopards in a city park in India may help lower human injuries and deaths from stray dog bites

Wild leopards that live in an Indian city park like to dine on stray dogs, which new research says may help reduce the number of potentially deadly dog bites on people.

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