Amana Othman

Amana Kilawi was born and grew up in the southern part of Tanzania, an area where she was surrounded by nature and biodiversity. She lived at Songea village with her mother and brother after her father passed away on his military field work, and her mother took care of the family.

Amana’s environment invested her with a passion for charismatic African fauna and biodiversity, wildlife conservation, and engaged conservation practice. She loves mammals, especially elephants. Whenever she sees an elephant, she sees the life she shared at home with her mother, because groups of elephants are led by a female. Amana also loves birds and conducted her undergraduate research on the influence of water source entry points on bird species diversity at Lake Manyara National Park.

Amana’s love for nature and wildlife conservation led her to grow up with a big dream of becoming a conservationist in Tanzania, where there are a few females in the conservation field. In 2018 she worked as Project Coordinator for Ngorongoro Biodiversity Conservation, where her quest was to share her professionalism and expertise with others to promote conservation practice. In 2019 she volunteered as research assistant on a project aimed at understanding the mutualistic relationship between the greater honeyguide and four coexisting human cultures including Maasai, Hadzabe, Sonjo and Datoga.

Her work and field experience in wildlife and biodiversity conservation has stimulated her career goals. She expects to learn many things from the MSc in Conservation Biology and hopes to become among the best conservation ambassadors.

Thesis: Why doesn’t everyone honey hunt in southern Tanzania, and what does this mean for honeyguide birds? (Supervisors: Claire Spottiswoode, Jes van der Wal)