IUCN SSC Conservation Translocation Specialist Group

Director of the Small Cats Program and Conservation Translocation Panthera; Chair IUCN Conservation Translocation Specialist Group

Axel Moehrenschlager, Ph.D., serves as Director of the Small Cats Program and Conservation Translocations for Panthera. Moehrenschlager collaborates with others to escalate support, partnerships, discoveries, innovations, actions and impacts around the world that help 33 species of Small Cats in the wild. He also collaborates to elevate the power of responsible conservation translocations such as reintroductions and reinforcements to restore and strengthen the viability of Small and Big Cat populations globally.

Moehrenschlager has worked on a broad variety of threatened species, ranging from invertebrates and birds to antelopes and hippopotami, but his primary emphasis over 30 years has been on carnivores. Before joining Panthera, Moehrenschlager founded the Centre for Conservation Research and later co-founded the Wilder Institute of the Calgary Zoological Society. There his teams developed an international reputation in conservation translocations, as well as community-based conservation which aims to develop mutual benefits for biodiversity and for local people.

Moehrenschlager serves on the Leadership and Steering Committee of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission. He is also the Chair of the IUCN SSC Conservation Translocation Specialist Group which escalates Science, Guidance, Policy, Training, Action, and Outreach around the world. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Calgary in Canada, Adjunct Associate Professor at Clemson University in the United States, Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and Research Associate at Oxford University where he received his Ph.D. In related capacities, Moehrenschlager serves on the Technical Advisory Committee of the United Nations Equator Prize and as Judge of the St. Andrew’s Prize for the Environment.

I am Deputy Chair of the IUCN Conservation Translocation Specialist Group and have been involved with group for nearly 30 years. During this time Ihave worked on developing various guidelines and have also edited 8 issues of the Global Conservation Translocation Perspectives series. 

I am also working as Expert-Animal Assessment & Monitoring at the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi since 2000, During this time I have been involved in conduction biodiversity surveys, working on wildlife trade issues, assessed UAE alien species, and working on amphibians. I have also led the Abu Dhabi Red List of Ecosystems project and currently working on the Abu Dhabi Red List of Species.