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Brian Gratwicke

Wildlife Biologist / Center for Species Survival

Email

Phone: 202.633.0257

Fax:

Address:
Smithsonian National Zoological Park
PO Box 37012
Washington, DC 20013-7012

Education and Degrees

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

Research Focus

Brian Gratwicke is a conservation biologist at the National Zoo, where he leads the Zoo’s amphibian conservation program to confront global amphibian declines.

In addition to coordinating local amphibian conservation efforts, Brian leads the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project. This project aims to create assurance colonies for amphibians in Panama threatened with extinction by the invasive amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. This fungus is responsible for many amphibian extinctions around the world and Brian is leading a research project to develop a cure for the disease so that we can re-introduce captive assurance populations back into infected areas.

Before working at the Smithsonian, Brian was assistant director of Save The Tiger Fund at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Brian’s previous conservation experience includes work on freshwater ecology in Africa, tropical marine ecology in the Caribbean and tiger conservation efforts in Asia.

As a conservation biologist Brian also writes popular articles on a wide range of popular conservation issues. He has published more than 25 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and was a contributor to Hotspots Revisited, the biodiversity conservation prioritization scheme adopted by Conservation International.

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.

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Research Topics

Most Recent Publications

Gratwicke, Brian, Evans, M., Campbell Grant, E. H., Greathouse, J., McShea, William J., Rotzel, N. and Fleischer, Robert C. Low prevalence Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis detected in Appalachian salamanders from Warren County, Virginia, USA, Herpetological Review, 42 (2) 217-219. 2011.

Gratwicke, Brian, Evans, Matthew J., Jenkins, Peter T., Kusrini, Mirza D., Moore, Robin D., Sevin, Jennifer and Wildt, David E. Is the international frog legs trade a potential vector for deadly amphibian pathogens?, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 8 (8) 438-442. 2010.

Gratwicke, Brian, Shrestha, M. and Seidensticker, John. "Save The Tiger Fund's grant making strategy for recovering wild tiger populations". In: Tilson, Ronald L. and Nyhus, Philip J., Tigers of the world: the science, politics, and conservation of Panthera tigris, pp. 189-199. 2010.

Seidensticker, John, Gratwicke, Brian and Shrestha, M. "How many wild tigers are there? An estimate for 2008". In: Tilson, Ronald L. and Nyhus, Philip J., Tigers of the world: the science, politics, and conservation of Panthera tigris, pp. 295-299. 2010.

Gratwicke, Brian. Proceedings of the Appalachian Salamander Conservation Workshop. Apple Valley, MN: IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group. 2008.

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

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