Craig Fergus is a spatial analyst and manager of the Conservation GIS Lab at the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute's Conservation Ecology Center. His current research focuses on using GIS and other tools to examine the connections between landscape patterns and functioning ecosystems locally in Virginia and in Smithsonian study areas around the world.

Craig received his bachelor's degree in wildlife, fish and conservation biology from the University of California, Davis in 2008 and his master's degree in biology from Central Washington University in 2012. His master’s research examined the landscape genetics of an American pika population around Interstate Highway 90 in preparation for a now complete wildlife crossing structure. Craig joined the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute as an intern and contractor before becoming a staff analyst in 2018.  

Like many wildlife enthusiasts, Craig imagined he would be a field biologist and out of school spent a year straight in the field with the U.S. Forest Service and California Fish and Game Department looking for goshawks, martins and salmon. However, in the off-season, he took a job mapping the locations of these threatened species and has continued down that past ever since. 

Craig Fergus is a spatial analyst and manager of the Conservation GIS Lab at the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute's Conservation Ecology Center. His current research focuses on using GIS and other tools to examine the connections between landscape patterns and functioning ecosystems locally in Virginia and in Smithsonian study areas around the world. Craig received his bachelor's degree in wildlife, fish and conservation biology from the University of California, Davis in 2008 and his master's degree in biology from Central Washington University in 2012. His master’s research examined the landscape genetics of an American pika population around Interstate Highway 90 in preparation for a now complete wildlife crossing structure. Craig joined the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute as an intern and contractor before becoming a staff analyst in 2018.   Like many wildlife enthusiasts, Craig imagined he would be a field biologist and out of school spent a year straight in the field with the U.S. Forest Service and California Fish and Game Department looking for goshawks, martins and salmon. However, in the off-season, he took a job mapping the locations of these threatened species and has continued down that past ever since.