Mx Joselyn Mormile

"An interdisciplinary study of the human-baboon interface in a tolerant urban community"    (Prof Justin O’Riain)        

Originally from the USA, Joselyn Mormile came to South Africa in 2011 to volunteer at a rehabilitation centre for baboons orphaned as a result of human conflict. Here, Joselyn, a licensed veterinary nurse with a BS in Animal Behavior (USA), ran the centre’s veterinary clinic for a year before moving to the Soutpansberg mountains to work as research assistant collecting behavioural data on wild baboons. Fascinated by baboons and motivated to contribute towards a better understanding of the challenges both baboons and people face in anthropogenic landscapes, she completed her MSc in Primate Conservation from Oxford Brookes University (UK) in 2014. Her resulting research was one of the first of its kind to focus on the human dimension of urban human-baboon interactions. In 2016, Joselyn joined iCWild to pursue her PhD examining an area of reported urban human-baboon coexistence through an interdisciplinary lens, with a focus on baboon behavioural and spatial ecology, the human dimension factors which promote acceptance of baboons and responsible space-sharing, and the consequences of this overlap for baboons.

In 2020, Joselyn was appointed by NCC Environmental Services as the Project Manager and Conservation Scientist to run the City of Cape Town’s Urban Baboon Programme, where she and her team of ~90 staff manage the interface between people and baboons throughout the Cape Peninsula.