Ingela Jansson

oktober 12, 2016
|In Director
|By mette

Ingela was born and raised on a small farm in central Sweden. In her 20s, after taking a lower level nursing degree, she spent her time either traveling or working in hospitals saving up for the next trip. A journey to Africa in 1991 inspired me to return as a biologist, and find work in a wild and wonderful savannah. Ingela eventually took a degree in Biology at Umea University, finishing with a MSc thesis on brown bear ecology in collaboration with the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project. Then joined a friend on a cycle trip through East Africa, much for the possibility of stumbling upon a job. Got lucky and landed a job as research assistant on the Serengeti Lion Project – a biologist’s dream!

Ingela scanning Crater floor for lions. Better view from the vehicle roof. Lions on the Crater floor are not tagged in any way (i.e. no radio collars) and we rely on finding them by sight. Often we are helped by tourists in the area – seeing a cluster of vehicles indicates either a rhino or a group of lions.
Ingela scanning Crater floor for lions. Better view from the vehicle roof. Lions on the Crater floor are not tagged in any way (i.e. no radio collars) and we rely on finding them by sight. Often we are helped by tourists in the area – seeing a cluster of vehicles indicates either a rhino or a group of lions.
Ingela and Kayanda
Kayanda and Ingela

After 3 years, monitoring lions in Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater she was ready for more hands-on conservation work. In late 2010 she based herself full-time in Ngorongoro and started up what later became KopeLion. In 2015 she enrolled as PhD student at SLU, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, on a project titled “Balancing pastoralist livelihoods with wildlife management”. Over the next couple of years, she will divide her time between field work in Ngorongoro, and data analyzing and writing in a more academic setting in the Swedish north.