I am a senior environmental specialist for terrestrial mammals at Natural England, the government's adviser for the natural environment in England. I have been working in the environmental sector for 20 years, spending time in the private, governmental, charitable and voluntary sectors both in the UK and abroad.

The aim of my Fellowship was to gather and review best-practice knowledge from the two countries at the forefront of Eurasian lynx and European wildcat reintroductions, Germany and Switzerland, to assess the suitability of reintroducing the species to the UK.

There is widespread and growing interest in the media, from interest groups, non-governmental organisations and the scientific community in the reintroduction of formerly native predators to the UK. However, there had been no review or a clear set of guidelines defining the anthropogenic and ecological circumstances under which it would be appropriate to reintroduce these species to the UK. My Fellowship set out to work towards filling this evidence gap.

I am currently writing scientific papers which set out the key considerations for reintroducing both species into the UK.