Philippa BRAKES

Philippa Brakes is a behavioural ecologist and marine mammal biologist. Her research on social learning and culture in cetaceans and other non-humans, uses a combination of theoretical and empirical techniques to unravel how these processes influence conservation and welfare outcomes for wildlife. She has worked with a wide range of vertebrate species and is also interested in how perceptions of wildlife vary across human cultures, as well as how adaptive and maladaptive information is transmitted within and between cultures. She is currently a Research Fellow with Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Honorary Lecturer at the University of Exeter, a member of the IOC-UNESCO Project on Ocean Communication Messaging and Messengers Chapter Group. Since 2014, she has been spearheading the work on animal culture and conservation through the UNEP Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, where she is the Chair of the Expert Group on Animal Culture and Social Complexity, a network of more than 80 experts in this field.