Alice Laguardia’s passion for wildlife conservation brought her around the world to some of nature’s best-kept secrets to study eastern lowland gorillas, north Chinese leopards, African forest elephants and African lions. Her multidisciplinary background includes a PhD in Nature Conservation, a MSc in Wildlife biology and conservation and a BSc in Veterinary biotechnologies. In 2017 Alice returned to Gabon as senior scientist for WCS to conduct a nationwide survey of the forest elephants and to improve methodologies for future surveys. After relocating to East Africa, she is now starting a new position as species monitoring specialist for the Big Cats Program. She will focus on setting up lion monitoring efforts across WCS’s African savanna sites in support of country programs. She will develop and implement rigorous survey protocols using a combination of techniques, including camera-trapping and search encounter surveys, primarily focusing on lions, leopards, and cheetahs.