Dr Richard BERGL

Director of Conservation, Education and Science, North Carolina Zoo

Dr. Rich Bergl is the Director of the North Carolina Zoo’s Department of Conservation, Education and Science. He has worked in wildlife conservation across Africa for over 20 years in more than ten different countries on topics ranging from primate behavior to population genetics to protected area management.  He is one of the founding members of the SMART Partnership and is currently implementing SMART to improve anti-poaching efforts in protected areas throughout Africa.  Dr. Bergl is a member of the Executive Committee of the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group and the Scientific Commission of the UNEP/UNESCO Great Ape Survival Partnership, serves on the Wildlife Conservation and Research and Technology Committees of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and is a National Geographic Explorer and past Conservation Fellow at the Wildlife Conservation Society. He is adjunct faculty in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke.