I owe a lot to zoos. Growing up, I did not have many opportunities to interact with wildlife and my local zoo (Lisbon) taught me about the beauty of nature and the importance of protecting it. I started my career in that zoo, in 2007, as a volunteer keeper, where I stayed for over three years. However, as I really wanted to go down the zoo research and conservation path, and I had heard about the impressive reputation of British zoos (and BIAZA - the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums), I decided to move to the United Kingdom in 2012, to study a BSc in Animal Behaviour. After graduating, I continued pursuing my postgraduate studies in the UK, and did a Masters by Research (MRes) in Wildlife Behaviour & Conservation at the University of Chester, and a PhD in Animal Behaviour at the University of Birmingham.

My love of zoo science started back in 2014, when I spent the summers volunteering in different zoos around the UK. I jumped right into learning as much as I could from different teams and had a particular focus on big cat breeding programmes and zoo-managed in-situ efforts.

​

​I later completed my BSc at the University of Salford in Wildlife Conservation with Zoo Biology (with Professional Experience). Here I was fortunate enough to complete a research internship in Brazil studying primates from dawn to dusk through pristine (and very hilly!) Atlantic rainforest. ​Since then, I've completed a MSc at the University of Oxford in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management and a PhD in Ecology and Conservation from Nottingham Trent University.