Dr Simon Tollington

Dr Simon Tollington is a Conservation Scientist at Chester Zoo with over 10 years’ experience of working with endangered bird populations in Mauritius focusing on population genetics, the impacts of disease and the management of reintroduced and small populations.  

Dr Tollington completed his PhD at DICE in 2012 with Professor Jim Groombridge before working as a postdoctoral research fellow and a lecturer. As a Lecturer in Conservation Biology, he managed the conservation genetics lab and supervised numerous research student projects including population genetic studies of Bengal tigers and Arabian leopards. During his time at DICE, Simon also assisted with the coordination of ParrotNet, an EU COST network focusing on the impacts and drivers of non-native Indian ringneck parakeets in Europe. 

Currently, Dr Tollington facilitates an annual course on Ecological Statistics in R for DICE research students and contributes to postgraduate teaching.  

Dr Tollington is currently involved in numerous in-situ projects at Chester Zoo where he provides experimental, methodological and data analyses inputs. Many of these projects focus on developing ways to improve coexistence between people and wildlife and include Indian elephants in Assam, Andean bears in Bolivia and fruit bats in Mauritius. Simon is also involved in the assessment of populations of Ecuadorian Amazon parrots in Ecuador.