Brian Gratwicke

Wildlife Biologist / Center for Species Survival

Research Focus

Brian Gratwicke is a conservation biologist at the National Zoo, where he leads the Zoo’s amphibian conservation program and is devoted to confronting global amphibian declines. He also writes popular articles on a wide range of conservation issues and volunteers as an editor for a nature photography group in Washington, D.C.

Before working at the Smithsonian, Brian was assistant director of Save The Tiger Fund at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and represented the foundation of the science committee of the National Fish Habitat Initiative. Brian’s previous conservation experience includes research and consultancies on a wide range of conservation issues including: evaluation of conservation investments, wildlife trade, biogeography, fish migrations, invasive species, and water quality issues.

He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and was a contributor to Hotspots Revisited, the biodiversity conservation prioritization scheme adopted by Conservation International. Originally from Zimbabwe, Brian still holds a special affection for African wildlife and in 2004 he founded ZimConservation, a group dedicated to improving awareness of the deteriorating conditions for wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe.

Brian received a PhD in zoology from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in zoology and fisheries ecology, respectively, from the University of Zimbabwe.

Education and Degrees

• 2004 Dphil Oxford University,
• 2000 Mphil University of Zimbabwe,
• 1998 BSc Hons University of Zimbabwe,

Research Topics

• Bird Photo Gallery
• Amphibian Rescue

Most Recent Publications

Gratwicke, B. . IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group. 2008.

Gratwicke, B., Bennett, E., Broad, S., Christie, S., Dutton, A., Gabriel, G., Kirkpatrick, C. and Nowell, K. The world can't have wild tigers and eat them too, Conservation Biology, 22 (1) 222-223. 2008.

Gratwicke, B., Mills, J., Dutton, A., Gabriel, G., Long, B., Seidensticker, J., Wright, B., Wang, Y. and Zhang, L. Attitudes toward consumption and conservation of tigers, PLOS One, 3 (7) E2544. 2008.

Gratwicke, B., Seidensticker, J., Shrestha, M., Vermilye, K. and Birnbaum, M. Evaluating the performance of a decade of Save The Tiger Fund's investments to save the world's last wild tigers, Environmental Conservation, 34 (3) 255-265. 2007.

Gratwicke, B., Seidensticker, J., Shrestha, M., Vermilye, K. and Birnbaum, M. Staving Off Extinction: A Decade of Investment to Save the World's Last Wild Tigers (1995-2004). Washington, DC: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. 2006.

View all publications, abstracts, and printable papers by Brian Gratwicke