Mahi Puri successfully defended her PhD dissertation on Monday, June 28th in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida.  Her dissertation “Prioritizing and Identifying Opportunities for Carnivore Conservation in Human-dominated Landscapes of India” examined three main objectives: “1) determining habitat-use patterns for 4 carnivores (tiger, leopard, dhole, and sloth bear) in a human-dominated landscape and their patterns of temporal overlap with humans, (2) examining people’s willingness to engage in conservation interventions (wildlife-friendly agriculture/ agroforestry), and (3) combining species distribution data, landowner willingness and economic data on land to prioritize areas for conservation.”  She was co-advised by Bette Loiselle and Elizabeth Pienaar and her committee included Miguel Acevedo, Krithi Karanth, and Brij Thapa.  Her dissertation chapter on people’s willingness to engage in conservation intervention hit the press less than 24 hours after she defended in the Journal “Ecology and Society“.  To access this publication, click here.