Tutilo Mudumba

Tutilo Mudumba (born March 28, 1982) is a conservation biologist working at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. He is a research associate in the Research on the Ecology of Carnivores and their Prey (RECaP) Laboratory within the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. He was also project coordinator of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Kampala, Uganda from 2012 to 2015. His research focuses on human-carnivore interactions and the implementation of community-based conservation efforts. 
Mudumba was born in Butaleja, Uganda. His parents and experience growing up in rural Uganda were very influential in developing his interest in wildlife conservation. Mudumba studied conservation biology at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, receiving his bachelor’s of science in 2007. In 2011, he received his postgraduate diploma in international wildlife conservation practice from the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. 
From 2015 to 2019, Mudumba worked as a graduate research fellow in Robert Montgomery’s RECaP Laboratory at Michigan State University. He simultaneously worked to complete his Ph.D. in Fisheries and Wildlife from Michigan State University, finishing in 2019. 
Mudumba currently works as a research associate in the RECaP Laboratory at Michigan State University. He is also the Founder and Co-Director of the Snares to Wares Initiative, which works to combat the harmful effects of wire snaring on wildlife in East African National Parks. The initiative trains local youth to repurpose the wire snares into works of art that can be sold, providing employment opportunities and protecting wildlife. 
Mudumba also worked as project manager for the Wildlife Conservation Society in Uganda. Here, he oversaw research at Queen Elizabeth National Park. 
Mudumba is also a National Geographic Early Career National Geographic Explorer and a member of many professional organizations such as the American Society of Mammalogists, Society for Conservation Biology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Nature Uganda. 
Mudumba’s research specifically focuses on African lion conservation and understanding human-carnivore conflict. His research aims for real life application of conservation efforts at the community level in a way that empowers local communities to increase their tolerance for interactions with wildlife. He also works to quantify the impacts of anthropogenic disturbances on natural systems. 
Mudumba’s Ph.D. dissertation research focused on how large mammals are impacted by oil development in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda. He identified gaps in the understanding of how oil extraction impacts larger mammals. His research proved that the full extent of oil extraction on wildlife is still largely unknown and likely hinders effective and responsible management decisions. 
In 2017, Mudumba was published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. This research focused on the methodology of characterizing predation risk in carnivore-ungulate interactions. It also emphasized the importance of complex and multi-dimensional techniques to fully and completely characterize predation risk. In 2014, Mudumba published research on population estimates for lions (Panthera leo) and spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) in Uganda parks. He has also been published twice in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, in 2018 and 2019. Both studies aimed to advance interdisciplinary approaches to lion research. 
Mudumba’s most recent research focuses on conservation practices and human interactions with wildlife. His research on the history of the concept of community-based conservation was published in the journal Conservation Biology (journal)|Conservation Biology. In August of 2020, he published research on snare poaching and its implications for large carnivores and ungulates. This research ties deeply to the Snares to Wares Initiative that Mudumba leads. 
* 2016 Wildlife Conservation Network Pat J. Miller Scholarship
* 2016 World Wide Fund for Nature
* 2016 African Wildlife Foundation Charlotte Conservation Graduate Research Fellowship
* 2020 Rufford Small Grants for Nature Conservation II
Category:1982 births
Category:Conservation biologists
Category:Fish conservation