Meet the Founders: Annika Neuhaus

I grew up in a family of nature lovers. My father, a microbiologist, passed on his enthusiasm for animals, plants and ecosystems to me at an early age. When I think of my childhood, I remember the various pets we had: turtles, ants, rats, a dog, stick insects, birds, spiders, snakes… We often went hiking in the Alps, where my father pointed out beautiful beetles and edible mushrooms, and every holiday my brothers and I spent countless hours fishing, snorkelling, trying to catch crabs and watching lizards.

Long before I finished school, I knew I wanted to be a biologist. To fulfil my dream of learning more about nature, I studied biology at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen. However, as I was particularly passionate about ecology, I decided to do my Masters in Evolution, Ecology and Systematics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich.

During my studies, I volunteered in the Kruger National Park in South Africa, travelled to several tropical countries, gained insight into ex-situ conservation strategies in two different zoos, and learned more about birds and their behaviour. Through all these projects and experiences, one thing became crystal clear to me: We are losing our biodiversity and we have to do something about it. I have to do something about it. And as much as I love research, I believe we need to translate our knowledge into action and conservation strategies, and we need to start acting now.

This is why Andrew and I founded RARElab: to study species in complex and threatened ecosystems, to move quickly and adapt to our ever-changing world, to help protect and understand our species, and to bring together the power of many: biologists, conservationists, local people and the public. Together we can protect the precious nature our planet has to offer.

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Möchtest du über unsere Neuigkeiten, Projekte und Chance auf dem Laufenden gehalten werden? Unterstütze uns, indem du unseren Newsletter abonnierst.

Wir versenden keinen Spam! Für mehr Informationen, lies unsere Datenschutzrichtlinie

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