Dr Kate Evans is founder and CEO of the charity, Elephants for Africa.
Kate was a very early advocate of nature, as a child, she would look under rocks for woodlice, and was constantly trying to save stray animals. But whilst she had a love of all animals, it was elephants that captured her heart and her imagination, and at the age of seven, she made a promise to an elephant that she would help their conservation and wellbeing.
Kate was diagnosed with dyslexia while writing up her PhD, and academia did not come naturally to her, but she persevered, ending up, in her words, ‘in the wonderful environment of Swansea University on a course I loved, and was able to excel at.’
After graduating with her Zoology degree, Kate went to volunteer in southern Africa, working on hippos in the Okavango Delta, the insect life of the Namibian dunes, the samango monkeys of the coast forests of South Africa and tracking elephants on foot in Zimbabwe. Having confirmed that field biology was the life for her, Kate returned to Swansea to complete her Masters in Zoology, focusing on Lion parasites, but she chose to shift species - back to her beloved elephants - when she began her PhD. Her research programme was on adolescent male elephant behaviour and their transition from herd to bull life; on completion of her PhD, she founded Elephants for Africa to ensure the research could continue. After 10 years of living and working on male elephant social ecology in one of the world's remaining wildernesss in the world, the Okavango Delta in Botswana, she realised to be a more active conservationist, she needed to be working with people as well as elephants…and so the work was relocated to the Boteti River region of Botswana to tackle the escalating human-elephant conflict.
Kate still leads the charity, which focuses its work in Botswana, home to the largest remaining elephant population and is passionate about building local capacity and whilst Kate still researches the ecology and population dynamics of male elephants she has become an experienced educator, sharing her work through education Programmes she and her team have established in the communities bordering protected areas in Botswana. This education and communication work is a vital part of ensuring future generations of local conservationists have the skills they need to ensure the survival of elephants and wild spaces.
Kate’s work is also recognised internationally. She is a member of and Project coordinator of the Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre. In 2010 Elephants for Africa won the Best Research Award from Wetnose Animal Aid, and in 2011, Kate herself won the George B Rabb Conservation Medal from the Chicago Zoological Society, 2021 saw their Education programme win Silver at the Global Good Awards.