Vicky Melfi

 

Positions: Core Group, Behavior Advisory Chair, Editorial Advisor

 

Vicky started working in zoos at 16 years old, as a zoo keeper at Drusillas Zoo near Alfriston, Sussex. She has managed to occupy many other roles within zoos, including Volunteer Co-ordinator, Educational Assistant, and Researcher.

 

 After gaining, a B.Sc. in Animal Science, a M.Sc. in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare and a Ph.D. in Zoology, she went was appointed as a Senior Research Officer for the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust (the umbrella organisation of Paignton Zoo Environmental Park, Living Coasts, and Newquay Zoo) within their Field Conservation and Research Department. Her main role within this organisation is: leading the behavioural husbandry and animal welfare workgroup; undertaking and supervising ex-situ and in-situ research; lecturing at the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth; facilitating captive breeding programmes within Europe (EEP Sulawesi macaques, ESB Eastern black-white colobus, TAG chair of Gibbons); and coordinator of a conservation project to save Sulawesi crested black macaques from extinction.  

 

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