Samantha Zwicker

Samantha Zwicker, a tropical biologist and wildlife rehabilitation specialist, is the founder and co-director of Hoja Nueva. Hoja Nueva is a leading conservation organization confronting the multifaceted threats to the biodiversity of the Peruvian Amazon through rewilding programs, ecological research, and applied conservation. Sam has a master's degree in wildlife conservation ecology, a diploma in nonprofit management, and is completing her doctorate in Quantitative Ecology at the University of Washington. She has also been a Panthera Small Cat Action Fund Grantee, a Wild Felid Legacy Scholar, and an NIH Global Health Fellow. In addition to spearheading Hoja Nueva's projects within the Amazonian rainforests and communities of Madre de Dios, Peru, Sam is also investigating neotropical felid population dynamics, assessing the effects of human impact on threatened mammals using camera trapping, and describing interspecific competition and spatiotemporal overlap between sympatric carnivores.