Who We Are

Lonnie has recently retired from the Wildlife Conservation Society, where he was Assistant Director of Operations and Curator of Animal Care at the Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn, New York. He has worked in the zoological field for close to 40 years in both zoo and field conservation settings in over 20 countries. With his passion for working with people and the captive husbandry of animals, Lonnie has played a major role in the planning, development, and training of staff in several highly successful breeding and rearing programs for the reintroduction back into the wild of critically endangered chelonian and crocodilians. During this time, Lonnie has also served as a Board Member of the Turtle Survival Alliance and is Co-Chair of the IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group for Southeast Asia.

Lonnie’s passion for wildlife has led him to pursue new technologies to help boots-on-the-ground wildlife biologists, researchers, and rangers perform their jobs more efficiently and safely. This passion led Lonnie to attend and participate in the Texas Robotics Summit for Law Enforcement and First Responders Texas Public Safety Robotics Summit | TXPSROBOTS | Texas Drone Summit. After attending these summits, it became clear that a forum like this was needed for the wildlife community. Lonnie teamed up with Walter Sedgwick, Tom Prentice, and Clay Regan to initiate the first “Wildlife Conservation Drone and Technology Summit” in 2023 in Burnet Texas Home | Wildlife Conservation Drones & Technology Training Event (wcdws.com). This Summit brought together over 150 participants from 20 different countries! The Summit provided a unique hands-on training experience in new technologies and a chance to network with others in the field and tech companies to train and demonstrate drones drone software and hear dozens of presentations on projects in the field.

Lonnie has always believed that wildlife conservation is centered on the community where you work, hands-on communication about their needs, and how to serve those communities through wildlife conservation action. You can create new jobs, education, and trust by involving the community. If you are successful with this, Wildlife conservation is successful! This has been proven repeatedly with the projects Lonnie has been involved with. This strategy is easily transferred to new communities and target species.